Leviticus Session 13 of 16 (Chapters 24) with Chuck Missler

[Music] well we're in the 13th session of leviticus and we're going to focus on chapter 24 and i'm going to call the title of this the fear of god which may sound strange to you because it's a very strange chapter eight times in the bible you'll find this text be holy for i am holy well this chapter underlines three aspects of the demands of our holy god the first of three sections of the chapter deals with the oil for the lamp stand the second section deals with the flower for the table of shewbread and the third section is an incident where there's blasphemy and the person blasting gets stoned was killed holy oil holy bread and a holy name now it's interesting as i was preparing for this i was intrigued that there are some commentators that candidly admit that this chapter's this a little short chapter it seems out of place because it lies between the feasts of israel and the next chapter will be on the sabbatical year and some other broad topics sandwiched in between these two big sweeping calendar kinds of things is this little chapter with these three seemingly incidental issues we find a similar thing by the way in the book of numbers chapter eight where there's a brief description is inserted between the gifts of the princes and the cleansing levites but let's let's just stick with this it's interesting though to keep in mind that the most important structure in the camp of israel was what the tabernacle this strange portable sanctuary whose very detailed specifications were given to moses when he got the ten commandments i always visualized if i was making the movie i would have charlton hessen come down with a mountain with the tables of stone and one arm and a set of engineering drawings in the other and i'm being a little flippant perhaps but he came down not just with the ten commandments but with his specifications in detail of this strange structure now from the outside the tabernacle wasn't particularly attractive because the final covering was badger skins or porpoise skins whatever and uh it had no form nor comeliness that we should desire and yet from the inside is revealed incredible uh beauty and glory um very costly but this is what made the camp of israel holy and set apart for god the tabernacle just as the holy spirit dwells in believers which sets them apart from the world now what's interesting about the instructions we're going to encounter they primarily focus on the fact that the people at large were to provide the oil and the flower we want to understand what that really all about the participation of the people is the point of emphasis in the passage we're going to explore here god's saying you bring the oil you bring the flower let's go to leviticus chapter 24 verse 1. the first section is the oil and the lamp stand now let's talk a little bit about the importance of the lampstand this menorah the importance of it cannot be overstated it was an accurate and beautiful picture of what typologically anyone jesus christ every detail in the tabernacle every detail ultimately points to jesus christ now it was hammered out of pure gold and made into one piece with a central staff and six sides in fact this may be the place to take a look at some pictures when the romans destroyed the temple in 70 a.d they plundered it and that plundering by the romans is celebrated in the arch of titus in rome and on the arch of titus is a freeze and on that freeze the menorah is clearly pictured it's one of the best pictures we have of what it probably actually looked like now the temple institute has had for many years a model this thing is about six seven feet high it's a large structure this one is just a replica of how they believed it looked but on december 5th of 1999 they actually unveiled in the cardo which is a major section of the jewish quarter a a golden menorah if a man was standing by it would be taller than he would be it's a large menorah now whether that's exactly the tabernacle you have to understand the template suit obviously is responding to a lot of rabbinical literature over the years that are opinions but anyway that's the structure you notice your king james version calls it a candlestick and that's an unfortunate translation if it said candelabra or something it'd be a little more comfortable it really was a lamp stand on the top of each of these seven arms is a oil lamp with a wick and that had to be tended continually day and night there's one branch one plus six i'm the vine you're the branches and jesus made laid claim to this he says that uh i am the light of the world and so forth what you filled those lamps with was uh pure olive oil that defu fueled them and of course they're mentioned in exodus 25 27 30 40 all through exodus and and and on what they've also fabricated at the temple institute and we'll talk about that in a minute is that the tools with which the high priest tended those trimmed them made sure that there was sufficient oil because they were to burn continuously day and night now there is an exception not mention the scriptures but we pretty well understand that when they were traveling with the from point to point it obviously wasn't uh burning but um that's our uh that's that's a commonly understood rabbinical presumption but when it was set up they were burning uh day and night the menorah was the only light a source of light the tabernacle there's no windows that's what jesus said i am the light of the world now then jesus before he left the earth told his disciples that they then with his departure are to be the light of the world and paul picks up the same idea in philippians where he speaks of us that we should be among whom ye shine as lights in the world so that idiomatic use is obviously very consistent before i get into other topics here understand that every detail of the tabernacle the materials the sizes the distances every detail points to jesus christ and that in itself is an incredibly fruitful study if you haven't undertaken i encourage you to do that uh our exodus commentary deals with it we have a briefing back called the ark the lost ark of the covenant which also happens to get into all that background it's it's a couple of ways to go but you really want to understand the details of the tabernacle and you'll discover that every one of those details ties in a very surprising way directly to jesus christ the the poles of the linen fence that surrounded it rested on silver sockets silver's always levitically the symbol of blood the 30 pieces of silver i betrayed innocent blood and the whole tabernacle rested what on on the silver everything outside the tablet was bronze because it could endure fire everything inside the tabernacle was gold and so on and every detail the coverings they all are incredible um linkages to aspects of the person of christ but now uh getting back to the the day-to-day thing aaron the high priest had sole charge of the lights of the lampstand to keep them burning that's in exodus 30. each morning and evening the high priest would tend to make sure there's enough oil we'd trim the would trim the wicks and and care for the individual lights to make sure they would continue to burn because they are to burn continually they had special instruments which i showed you the picture of that for trimming them and so forth now it's kind of important to understand the parallel who is our high priest today what's he doing he's ever living making intercession for us but he's also in effect trimming the lamps and we know from the book of revelation he walks among the lampstands that's exactly what he's pictured in chapter one and and following he pours in the oil which is the holy spirit he trims the wicks so they'll be brighter and he removes the light when it refuses to burn this is this equivalent to the sin of sin unto death that john mentions in his epistle now let's just sit in the text uh verse one the lord spake unto moses saying command the children of israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light to cause the lamps to burn continually the emphasis in this section starts to become clear when you understand the emphasis on the people it's their it's their participation that's essential to keep the lights burning and how true that is with our churches the pastor can't do it the elders and deacons can't do it the people have to be supportive to keep the lights burning in the camp of israel by the way keeping the those lights burning day and night continue was no trivial item that required a personal involvement of not just the levites but they're not just the priests not just the levites the whole camp and the olive oil was to be pure free of any leaves or whatever purities it was beaten out to be the very best grade and of course i think most of us recognized that the oil speaks of the holy spirit that's in many places in scripture no more vividly than zechariah 4 the first half dozen verses but the menorah also in a sense speaks not just it also speaks of jesus christ as the word of god what the unconverted cannot see they can't see because the apps of the holy spirit the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god because they're spiritually discerned you can't under if you you cannot understand the bible you can't understand what you're reading unless the holy spirit's revealing it to you many people who are unsaved will read the same passage and not see anything and those of you say will see it they'll just sleep out at you'll be clear but just to give you an example paul said in second corinthians second chapter well actually this idea occurs in psalm 119 atlanta and to my feet and so forth the word is the light if you will but let's just take the one in second corinthians 2. you want to turn with me the second we'll pick up a half dozen verses there second second corinthians chapter 2 if you would but as it is written starting at verse 9 i have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which god hath prepared for them that love him but god hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of god for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of god knoweth no man but the spirit of god now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of god that we might know the things that are freely given to us of god which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the holy ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual judgeth all things and he that he as he himself is judged of no man for who hath known the mind of the lord that he may instruct him but we have the mind of christ and he goes fabulous letter the second corinthians letter by paul but the whole point is we as people cannot see what god would have see without the holy spirit and in that sense very clearly the menara in the tabernacle idiomatically is used the same way as the only source of light without that light you couldn't see anything and that light of course is a result of the oil the holy spirit being there but it's also a responsibility of people to see that their support otherwise the light would go out and the same thing's true of the church many churches are not bearing the fruit they should well could be for many reasons but one of which is the lack of involvement of the people a lack of commitment of the people a lack of participation let's move on verse three without the veil of the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation i mean without he means outside the veil of testimony in the tabernacle congregation shall aaron order it from the evening until the morning before the lord continually notices aaron himself not just the priest the high priest before the lord continually it shall be a statute forever in your generations he shall order the lamps upon the pure lamp stand before the lord continually and it's aaron alone in exodus chapter 30 verse 78 it says aaron shall burn there on sweet instance every morning he dresses the lamps and he shall burn incense upon it speaking of the golden outer and when aaron lighteth the lamps at even he shall burn incense upon it a perpetual incense before the lord throughout all your generations and of course if the people didn't bring the oil the lights couldn't be kept burning in the holy place now people might say gee we can't see the lampstand anyway so what difference does it make the lamp stand was not there for the people to see but for god to see and for the priest to use as he carried out his ministry what happened in the presence of god was far more important than anything else that happened anywhere else during the camp and same thing with us often our support of a ministry is for things that we may never get reported on we never know what's going on we we may not necessarily hear uh the things that our god god is doing but nevertheless it's the faithfulness of the people that is essential to make the whole thing work here well jesus also just to continue the model here jesus declared i am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life that's in john 8 verse 12 and the similar passage in luke 2 and and all through john john 1 john 8 elsewhere and of course locals local churches are lamp stands we see that vividly portrayed the book of revelation in that in chapter 1 we also find illusions of it in the sermon on the mount matthew 5 ephesians 5 philippians 2 and so on and all these lampstands and all these idioms in revelation 2 require oil to keep it burning as the involvement of the people that keeps the church spreading its light jesus is walking in the among the lampstands today we see that in revelation chapter 1 verse 13 says in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the son of man clothed with a garment down on the foot and girt about the paps with the golden girdle and then a few verses later verse 20 says and the seven lampstands which thou sowest are what the seven churches you have to guess it's interpreted for you revelation in large measure interprets itself and every idiom in revelation is alluded to somewhere else in scripture nothing will give you a a a more comprehensive grasp of the integrity of the bible as an integrated design than going through revelation tracking down every one of those illusions the reason it sounds strange to our ears is because we don't know our old testament there are in the 404 verses of revelation there are over 800 direct illusions from the old testament alone so that's part of the tie together if you will so these lamp stands in revelation are the churches so again it all ties to the menorah that was installed in exodus if you will and so on and of course jesus trims every now and then sometimes he must snuff out a light that is giving off more smoke than light he does remove lampstands ephesus was threatened that if they didn't return their first love he would remove their lampstand where's the lamp stand at ephesus today one of those fantastic visits as you travel the greek seas and a cruise stop by ephesus and take a look at fabulous ruins and reconstructions but they are ruins and reconstructions ananias and sapphira understood about being removed out of the ball game didn't lose salvation they were saved they were saved by christ not by what they did but they're certainly taken put in the penalty box didn't they well let's go to the second topic it's another strange topic here we talked about oil for a few verses now i've talked about the flower of the table of showrooms you walked into the holy place if you're a priest and you and you it was your turn to get in there you'd enter through the one gate there was the altar sacrifice there was the labor where you did this ritual washing then you'd enter the holy place in the holy place on the left was going in would be the menorah giving the light on the right was a table of showbread it could have been translated the bread of presents the bread to show but it also it now come back to that but anyway you had 12 loaves there one freeze and 12 tribes and would stay there for a week at the end of the week there'd be fresh loaves and the priests would eat the loaves that were there in the in the holy place and up ahead in the holy place but just in front of the veil was the golden altar the altar of vincents and then was the veil and behind which was two things not one thing two things the ark of the covenant and on top of it the mercy seat and the only one that could enter that room would be the high priest and he could only do it once a year on yom kippur we went through that before but just by way of review verse 5 god continues thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof two tenth deals shall be in one cake and thou shalt set them into two rows six in a row upon the pure table before the lord and thou shalt put pure frankincense up on each row that it may be on the bread for a memorial even an offering made by fire unto the lord so these loaves were treated sort of like a meal offering complete with the frankincense if you remember back in chapter two on the sabbath the loaves were replaced and the priests would take a memorial portion of them from the loaf add the frankincense and burn it on the altar with the daily bird offering and the frankincense is a spice that speaks of the priesthood you all remember most of us associated with frankincense with the gifts of the magi the birth of christ gold frankincense and myrrh gold speaking of his deity frankincense of his priesthood and myrrh of his death really the prophet priest and king are modeled there in the millennium they're going to bring him the same gifts except no myrrh they'll bring him gold and frankincense in isaiah tells us why no more myrrh because myrrh spoke of death his death was behind him once and for all verse 8 every sabbath he shall set it in order before the lord continually being taken from the children of israel by an everlasting covenant and it shall be aarons and his sons and they shall eat in the holy place for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the lord made by fire by a perpetual statute so these guys got to eat stale bread after a week they of course it was you unleavened bread but anyway they would uh eat it right there ceremonially all of them those that are in the holy place you may recall when david and his men were fleeing from saul and they were an extremist they were desperate they were in flight and ahimalek gave them the showbread out of the tabernacle now in a ritualistic or ceremonial sense that was a no-no those were the priests but david and his guys were starving and had to flee it was just a practical response he gave them the the bread off the uh throw bread and you could gasp as a rabbinical expert you could gasp in horror he shouldn't do that well that's exactly what jesus used to defend his disciples in matthew 12 you may recall they were eating on the sabbath day and getting scolded for that the pharisees were upset about that and jesus points to the incident with david and the point he's making is that there are cases where you set aside the ritual for the pragmatics of what's going on and here they're with the messiah he's the lord of the sabbath in the first place so stop your quibbling really is what the his way i had to summarize it but now we're talking a little bit more about the bread of presence which is probably the way we call it show bread from the king james bread that was showing it's the bread of presence it does two things it brings the 12 tribes in the presence of god by being represented there and also puts the tribes in the presence of god it works both ways if you will but in any case only the priests which of course we're all in the tribe of levi those those that are levites that are direct descendants of aaron are priests only the priests could be in the tabernacle so in a sense only one tribe is represented so this is an offset if you will all 12 tribes are intended to be represented in effect by the bread of presence that brings that makes all those 12 tribes present if you will in the holy place mean by representation they're also represented by the 12 jewels on the breastplate of the high priest so there's two major ways that the 12 tribes are are represented there by the 12 stones on the breastplate and the 12 loaves on the table now we call that table the table of showbread from numbers 4. and the loaves then are called showbread in exodus 25 but that could be translated the bread of presence it's a it's an idiom or a symbol of being present god was present with his people and they were present in the tabernacle both ways it works no matter where they are in the camp no matter what they'd be doing they were represented before god in the tabernacle now the new testament application of all of this is in colossians chapter three just you put in your notes colossians three from verse one and following you can just read the next half a dozen or dozen verses and it will describe our presence uh there yeah the analogy now the bread that's there can also be viewed as pointed to jesus christ because he says i am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall never hunger he that believeth on me shall never thirst in john 6. and later on in that same chapter he says i am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread that i will give is my flesh which i shall give for the life of the world but you know that you can press this too far because they're 12 loaves not one more you're more you're on sounder ground to make those illusions point to manna more than the bread on the show bread so you there's some commentators that make the point that the real focus of the john 6 passage and idioms may be more accurately represented by the manna and say because the the 12 loaves clearly are jewish things the 12 tribes so there's some issues there but in fact uh when you speak of jesus being the bread of life you really should be thinking of the lord's prayer in matthew 6 verse 11 give us this day our daily bread and we have to live by spiritual bread just not materially both are in view i believe so these are these two little sections in chapter 24 and we'll try to put this in a little more perspective let's take the third one now which is a totally different thing in the book of leviticus which is mostly a direct quote of god to moses all the way through but there are two incidents two little narratives that show up in the book which are conspicuous because they're a different style altogether the first one was the incident of nadab and abihu in back there in chapter 10 you recall the second incident is right here in front of us and it's just an incident that deals with the son of an israelite mother and a egyptian father and the son blasphemes now this is a strange uh interruption to tell about a blasphemer who's judged but i'm going to suggest to you that this narrative while it actually happened is an illustration and not an interruption and the basis of this whole issue is the obedience to the law and primarily the issue of being obedient to the law is fear of the lord one of the the underlying tones of this whole chapter is getting serious for all of us not just the high priest or the priests or whoever all of us to get serious about the fear of the lord we should all be involved with the oil with the wheat and now we have this interesting little incident where the issue is the name of god here we have a negative example but it's really dealt with with incredible clarity verse 10 the son of an israel israelitis woman and whose father was an egyptian went out among the children of israel and this son of the israel israelites woman and a man of israel strove together in the camp they're in an argument this is an example right away of the problems and the difficulties that were represented by what they call a mixed multitude when they left egypt they were problems uh uh their problem children and they were troublemakers we saw this group create trouble back in numbers 11 murder murmur cost strife and so forth and they correspond i believe to those in the church today you don't have to nod in agreement or raise your hand you can i think all of us have been in churches where there's some troublemakers that are um torn between being in the world on the one hand and trying to serve god in the other they're halting between two opinions as some might put it and this is one of the reasons that god then and now instructs us that there should not be intermarriage between a believer and a non-believer that sounds so harsh in the realities of relationships that can be very very awkward and yet god instructs that makes that very very clear and this has nothing to do with race it's nothing to do with these other kinds of issues and we would never know that it was wrong except god told us that because of the old testament tells us in the new but let's move on in any case this boy is that we're dealing with inevitably gets into a fight he didn't really have a place in the tribe of dan where his mother came from and yet he was in the camp so he's in the camp and yet he doesn't have roots he doesn't have a connection hang around verse 11. and israel israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the lord and cursed and they brought him unto moses and his mother's name was shelimit the daughter of debris of the tribe of dan but he cursed he blasphemed the name of the lord and cursed well whoops this indeed was serious he cursed the name of god every jew in that camp knew the third commandment exodus 20 verse 7 thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy your god in vain the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain the name of the lord was so sacred in israel that they felt it was sinful to even pronounce it they never never pronounced the name of god the hebrew what they call the tetragamaton fancy name for four letters usually translated yh and some people feel it should be pronounced yahweh if you're going to try to pronounce it others pronounce jehovah and because the j from the german is often misunderstood by english they say jehovah pronounced that property it's really jehovah but in any way it's more conventional today there's scholastic discussions about how it probably was pronounced if it was allowed to be pronounced there there are some beliefs that the high priest pronounces it once a year secretly those may be true or they may be just these colorful rabbinic legends that emerge but in any case the name of god was so sacred that they never pronounced it and to this day the greatest scholars in uh among the hebrew sages and among christian scholars debate and write papers and ponder how it probably was pronounced in written documents you'll always notice you always tell orthodox jew because he'll always say whenever the word god occurs it's g dash d he doesn't even put the o there to make it say god it's g dash d and it strikes most of us as bystanders sorry being a little contrived and yet they take it seriously got to give them their due and they'll always pronounce it adonai meaning lord instead when they come across those terms in the text they'll speak of adonai they'll never try to pronounce the way it would seem to be pronounced but of course the real issue i think that needs to be before us is there other ways to blaspheme god's name other than swearing perjury is an example stealing is an example when you steal you're blaspheming the name of god and jesus taught us that in matthew 5 sermon on the mount that we shouldn't use olds or vows to make people believe us in fact proverbs 10 19 says a multitude of words may evidence that there is that sin is present that's i think a disturbing thing for guys like me that i'm always flapping off with my mouth so that's a scary discipline the mouth will reveal the heart in any case this kid was in deep yogurt he blasphemed the name of god now something very interesting verse 12 he says and they put him in a ward that the mind of the lord might be showed them they had a dilemma here what did they do they knew that the penalty for a jew to do that was death but here you got a kid that's got a egyptian father a jewish mother how does he fit in the first point they didn't conjecture they put him in under control in an award and they sought the mind of the lord boy we need to do that when we get confronted with something that's not clear it's we should seek the lord it's interesting moses does that on four different occasions some unusual situation come up he didn't guess he went to the lord to get it resolved in numbers 9 and 15 and 27 36 daughters of zelda had as one of the best known ones there's been some others verse 13 the lord's spaking to moses saying bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp that is outside the camp and that all that heard him lay their hands upon his head and let all the congregation stone him that was their form of capital punishment the verdict is guilty the penalty is death blasphemy was a capital crime in israel matthew 26 acts 6 13 god takes this very seriously essentially the witnesses the eyewitnesses would be first to stone him they would lay hands on him identifying him and also identifying that they were witnesses verse 15 thou shalt speak unto the children of israel saying whosoever curseth his god shall bear his sin and he that blasphemeth in the name of the lord shall surely be put to death and all the congregation shall certainly stone him as well as the stranger as he that is born in the land when he blasphemeth in the name of the lord he shall be put to death same law for the strangers or foreigners that are among them even strangers were not to be allowed to blaspheme the name of the god of israel this is disturbing we're obviously not under the law and that's not our culture here on the one hand on the other hand it's clear that god takes this seriously probably more seriously than any of us really look in the eye verse 17 he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death i don't see any footnotes or options there that's disturbing that's not our common culture we'll talk about capital punishment here a little bit coming but anyway he that killeth a beast shall make it good beast for beast see god also provides for protection of private property here private ownership is ordained in the ten commandments that's the whole idea of thou shalt not steal god endorses private ownership and anyone that studied cultures know that you can't have liberty without private ownership they go together it's not obvious until you study it but then it becomes very obvious anything that impinges on your property rights is the loss of your freedom it links if a man calls a blemish in his neighbor has he hath done so shall it be done to him breach for breach eye for eye tooth for tooth as he hath caused a blemish in a man so shall it be done to him again you've heard that before an eye for an eye to you've all heard this right it's all been very misunderstood well what we've encountered here is what's called lex talianas the law of retaliation it's called in latin effect an eye for an eye tooth for tooth the punishment must fit the crime is what it's really saying it's in exodus 21 it's deuteronomy 19. it's a number of places the principle is that the guilty offender was not punished more severely than the crime demanded see we all tend to look at that as an extreme measure you know it was intended to communicate just the opposite yes if it's death penalty it's death it's other things is whatever fits the crime that's really what the term means the murder was put to death and that's clear from leviticus 24 here uh in two places verse 17 and 21 and then also in genesis 9 verse 5 and 6 and following but penalties for other offenses had to fit the crime the penalty had to fit the crimes the concept now because most people misunderstand this they feel that that's cruel and unjust because they missed the point they've questioned how can a god of love and mercy even enunciate such a thing but see this was actually an expression of god's justice and his compassion because it helped restrain personal revenge in a society that had no police force before we get too critical about these quaint little rules in ancient israel let's make a couple of observations they had no policemen and they had no prisons think about it oh you had the priests in the temple enforce certain things so what did you do the next of kin was the enforcement his next of kin who was called a goal we call him the kinsmen redeemer in the positive sense he's also the avenger of blood in the negative sense this society had no police force it had no elaborate judicial system and had no prisons and apart from this law the strong would simply crush the weak on whatever pretense they needed on the lease offense by the way just just a little background lex teleones is used modern in modern parlance in international law the term uh describes the rule by which one state may inflict upon the citizens of another state death imprisonment or other hardship in retaliation for similar injuries imposed upon citizens of their own state so you'll hear that term uh used in international law but that's a specialized case if you will now the pharisees used lex talianis to defend their practice of private revenge but a practice which jesus condemned in the sermon on the mount in matthew chapter 5 verses 38 and 39 but let's go on with the passage here in leviticus so we don't use up all our time he that killeth the beast shall restore it he that killeth the man shall be put to death you shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger as one for your own country for i am the lord your god and moses spake to the children of israel that they should bring forth him that cursed bring him out of the camp and stone him with stones and the children of israel did as the lord commanded moses now jesus dealt with the topic of blasphemy and revenge in matthew chapter 5. verse 33 to 48 which perils the topic here leviticus for your notes i want you might put that in your notes to dig into because jesus is giving instructions here for individuals our instructions for governments come in from romans 13 the first seven verses paul lays out god's statement of human government in society and romans 12 verses 14 21 it's god's admonition concerning personal insults and attacks which of course is a passive one rules that were being installed for the governorship of the theocracy in israel so you've really got three different things to analyze as you study your scripture we're exploring the rules that god laid down for the camp of israel has chosen jesus gives us instruction for our individual behavior that paul also amplifies in romans 12. the governmental admonitions our relation to the government in these things is in romans 13. but that brings up this whole issue of capital punishment and of course the arguments for capital punishment are varied and we must um not make our personal opinions or convictions about this any test of fellowship or spirituality many good people who've really studied this have different views in the bible murder is a serious crime why because humans not just animals humans were made in the image of god and genesis 1 and first corinthians 11 and james three i'll allude to that so to kill a human being is an attack on god's image that's the issue life itself is a sacred gift from god and only god can take it away or authorize it being taken away god has ordained human government and given civil authorities the power of the sword and that's what romans 13 deals with the first half a dozen verses the purpose of capital punishment is not to frighten criminals into being good but to uphold and defend the law that's what it's all about it's a declaration that men and women are special that they're created in the image of god and that life is sacred in god's sight that's the issue whether or not capital punishment affects crime statistics is not the main issue it's amazing how that always comes up but that's not the real issue it's probably doubtful that any of our laws are deterrence to crime careless drivers still speed people still park in no parking zones wage earners still cheat on their income tax burglars will still steal but would you want any of our legislatures to repeal the laws against speeding parking illegally or falsifying your income tax or stealing hardly respect for truth respect for life and property are the cornerstones of a just and peaceful society capital punishment may not decrease the number of murderers any more than speeding tickets decrease the number of speeders but it does declare that humans are made in the image of god that life is a sacred gift the bible does not present capitalist punishment as the cure-all for crime that's never even hinted at it presents it as a form of punishment that shows respect for the law for life in humans made in the image of god to take either a pragmatic or a sentimental approach to this subject is to miss the main point entirely you have a lot of opinions about those two issues but the central issue is is the sacredness of life and the sacredness of life before god now opponents of capital punishment love to quote statistics that prove executions are not a deterrent to crime but using statistics to defend or oppose capital punishment is difficult to challenge because there's no possible way to set up a control group the size and composition of the population of the state or city plus the local laws and how the how they're enforced all have considerable bearing on the matter even the american humanist lawyer clarence darrell an enemy of capital punishment had to admit quote it's a question that cannot be proven one way or the other by statistics close quote daryl defended 100 accused murderers and not one of them was executed that's probably more a comment about daryl than it was about the murders perhaps the greatest deterrent to capital punishment is our own lack of confidence in our system of jurisprudence there are two kinds of errors that the system is obviously liable to letting the guilty go free or punishing the innocent those of you that are familiar with the two types of error in mathematical statistics there are type one type two errors as they call them the rejection of the true hypothesis or the acceptance of false hypothesis same statistics apply and uh but anyway our lack of confidence in the judicial system caused many of us to sort of lean in the direction away from capital punishment because we don't like the irreversible step of execution in contrast to an extended incarceration because that at least allows the possibility that it could be repaired if subsequent evidence is found and so forth so it's sort of a cop-out and many of us lean that way for that reason but let's leave all this and wrap it up let's talk about our own guilt god is righteous in all his dealings and i want to ask for a show of hands of how many of you have violated the taking the lord in vain whether in the form of a curse or some other form there's many many that that's a whole other study in its own right but it's not a question of looking through the ten commandments and see which ones we've broken it's trying to find some that we haven't especially in view of the rigorous interpretation of the author of those commandments that was given to us as he explained them on the sermon on the mount because the the uh ten commandments all nine of the ten are operatively determinable by evidence only one is in the heart the covetousness you can't you know it's another it's it's hard to prove that but uh jesus took it right into the into the heart and and and we're all guilty so we're all the main point of the book of romans is that we're all guilty so we're all guilty before god when exodus 18 emphasizes twice the soul that sitteth does what where's the soul of sins will die this whole sin shall die and obviously the good news is that christ is born our sentence of death and we can draw that most eloquently right from isaiah 53 surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all praise god well there's another topic that this all begs as we talk about um the murderer being dealt with so severely in uh leviticus 24. law of moses made a distinction between murder and manslaughter that's important for us to consider you may recall that in joshua when the tribes were dividing up we took the 12 tribes and gave them lands the levites were left over and they didn't inherit land they inherited cities 48 cities six of those 48 cities were designated as cities of refuge three east of the jordan three west of the jordan and the idea was that if you were innocent of murder but guilty of manslaughter you had a problem because the next of kin was after you you killed a guy by whatever accident uh inadvertent lack of diligence whatever what you and i would characterize in our society as the term manslaughter not deliberate premeditated murder you had a problem because this his next of kin was after your hide so when that incident happened your task was to head right now for a city of refuge and when you got the city refuge of the city fathers at the gate you could convince them and they'd have a trial they convinced them that it was manslaughter not murder you had sanctuary in that city the avenger of blood could not touch you while you were in that city that's what it's really all about see if i was to give a fair trial you see that numbers 35 driving 19 josh 20 deals with these issues this whole idea was due to to control or appease the angry relatives of the dead person the adventure but who would obviously be in pursuit now the reason i bring this up is for two reasons i think it needs to modify our perceptions here of the capital punishment issue in ancient israel but there's another thing about it that always haunts me um as you know i've long insisted that everything in the bible especially in the torah all points of jesus christ and i often get sometimes playfully and sometimes seriously get challenged uh on some of these premises you know aren't some of these biblical rules and regulations simply quaint tribal customs and you'll find many commentators good commentators will treat their analysis of the of the torah the old testament passages as if well that's just to try you know it was just a that was good for them then they don't they don't look behind that in terms of what god may be really saying which is much more profound and we've already talked about the exception of the daughter of zelipha another incident when moses had to make an exception was before the five daughters of zelophehad and he makes that exception you may recall of course that's critical in the chain of claims of jesus christ because it sets up the whole genealogy of mary if you will as an end run on the on the blood curse on jaconia but we went through all that before when we especially when we talk about the genealogy in luke 3. but there's another specific challenge that comes to this idea that everything's there points to christ is this business of the cities of refuge we have this very peculiar institution of the cities of refuge installed uh in the scripture i think i've explained pretty much uh how that works except there's some there's it has some strange provisions if you were guilty of manslaughter you fled to a city of refuge and if you qualified you could you they would give you sanctuary from the avenger of blood he could not touch you and that situation that standoff between you and the avenger of blood would endure until an event a seemingly unrelated event occurs down in jerusalem finally someday the high priest would die whoever was serving through those centuries would eventually die and would be replaced by his successor when the high priest died all bets were off you could leave your city of refuge and go back home and the avenger of blood couldn't touch you so you had sanctuary in the city of refuge until the high priest died then you're free to go home you say why what's that got to do with anything what's that got to do with the dynamics here well i'll first of all hide behind a couple of verses here paul in romans 15 verse 4 says whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hoped whatsoever things this is one of those whatsoever things so that for some reason this has relevance to us if the holy spirit will reveal it to us and what's the spiritual significance of the city of refuge well jesus also declared the volume of the book is written of me so if you have any biblical dilemma this little rule you can just tuck away and try yourself anytime you have a biblical dilemma where you don't quite understand what's going on put jesus right in the middle of it and see what happens and by the way as i was writing that in my notes it occurred to me delete biblical problem any problem any dilemma you've got biblical or otherwise put jesus christ right in the middle and see what happens let's begin by examining this uh in terms of the death of jesus christ in 1979 there was a peace conference in jerusalem i had a chance to speak and as a gentile christian you know in the jewish mind we're always accusing them of being the christ killers right and the point of departure was that if you want to blame someone for the death of christ blame me it was my fault it was my sins put them on the tree but the question is was the death of jesus christ premeditated murder was it manslaughter for the purpose of this analysis let's say what does it fit well from god's point of view it was first degree peter tells us it was uh he was being delivered by the determinant counsel and the foreknowledge of god god planned it it was premeditated so in that sense we would regard it as murder from the father's point of view in fact it was a deal struck between him and the son before the foundation of the world but what about our position you and i was it premeditated well let's look at the words of jesus himself on the cross he said and probably he's our defense counsel right he said father forgive them for they what no not what they do i would call that manslaughter so in that sense yes we're guilty but in terms of his death in that sense it's manslaughter so at least for this purpose we're eligible to flee to the city of refuge aren't we and who's our city of refuge jesus and how long galatians 2 20 i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ live within me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me well romans 8 verse 2 the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death so he's our city of refuge so far so good for how long until the high priest dies when was the death of our high priest on that cross right it was his death that freed us from the pursuit of the adventure of blood he can't touch us because we're in the city of refuge in the one hand but the protection that's no longer necessary because the high priest has died but there is a catch to all this every check to be cashed has to be endorsed by the recipient right if i gave you a check with four million dollars and you fold up and put it in your pocket and never endorsed it what good is it to you they made out to you and let's assume for the purpose of this illustration it was there was the funds to cover it in order to make any good what do you have to do you have to endorse it by the recipient every pardon needs an acceptance and yes there are cases on record where a prisoner on death row was pardoned by a governor and refused to accept it was executed held up by the courts a pardon has to be accepted sounds bizarre there are a case lot of that effect and certainly it operates in this example so one of the questions we all have to answer have you laid claim to what he has purchased for you now i've talked about the city of refuge let's see if i've covered most things i want to do there's no police state for it of course there's no help for a murderer the city of refuge was available to all the strangers too by the way it was sanctified set aside it's always open always the all the highways and bridges to the city of refuge were always specially cared for to make sure they were open so anyone needing to run there would not be impeded they were repaired each spring specifically deuteronomy 19. so they were easy always in easy reach and so forth they were open to all the doors were never locked of those cities those cities were always open day and night and they were always stocked with provisions and so forth to deal with this sort of thing now some differences if you try to play this there's no differences in the city of refuge only the innocents were saved we're all guilty so i don't want to hammer that too far and christ is far more available in the city of refuge he's available to anyone immediately so there's some some ways that you can play with the model but like all these things it's good for a particular purpose but you can overdo it okay but let's just summarize what we've done so far leviticus 24 strange little chapter begins in the holy place of the tabernacle and it ends outside the camp it opens with oil and bread and closes with the shedding of guilty blood but what's the tie together what's the theme what is god saying in this chapter why are these three things put in juxtaposition our god is a holy god and we must honor him with extreme diligence whether we're bringing our gifts or respecting his name now the lord doesn't execute blasphemers today not in our culture at least but there is coming a day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed and then god will render to every man according to his deeds according to romans 2 verse 6. let's stand for closing word of prayer interesting little emphasis in chapter 24. next time we take chapter 25 a whole different change of pace the sabbatical year and the more you learn about it the more puzzling it'll be the sabbatical year not just the sabbath of days sabbath of years what's it all about and then the jubilee year what on earth there's two kinds of people that relate to the jubilee year most people never even heard of it and others are writing pamphlets with the most the strangest conjectures you can imagine i guess all things in prophecy are like that it suffers by its enthusiasts as well as its skeptics both abuse it terribly somewhere in between it's a balance but we'll talk about sabbatical year and the jubilee year and the gowell the kinsmen redeemer if you have time and can do it you might also skim through the book of ruth because it applies all these things in a very unusual way so that will be our as we get down to the closing uh stanzas of the book of leviticus we'll it'll it sort in a sense comes to a climax in many ways so let's borrow hearts for word of prayer well father we come before your throne grateful for the opportunity and yet humbled with the reality that we come to you what shall i say embarrassed by our sins father oh father how we have fallen so short even in the spirit of what you require we do understand father we're not under the the details of the law on the one hand and yet even so even as christians even as ones who have committed themselves to your son jesus christ we we come embarrassed with our ingratitude with our self-absorption our preoccupation with trivia father our lives are so short and eternity is so long why can't we get our priorities right no father we do pray father that you would help us each of us individually provide the oil and the flower for the things of your sanctuary for the work that you would have done we do pray father you make us more sensitive to the needs around us help his father through the holy spirit to be initiators not only responders and father with respect to your name oh we do understand that your name is more than a label it's your whole character that we misrepresent every place we go at our best we do so poorly so father we first of all want to ask you just to cleanse us from our sins because you promised that if we would confess our sins that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from our unrighteousness and father we seek that cleansing we need it so badly but we ask it especially that we might be filled with your spirit value that we might be more effective lampstands for you that people would be conscious of your presence not ours we do pray father that you would guide us illuminate that path before us step by step help us father just to trust you not only the big things but in the moment by moment confrontations that make up our day help his father to be effective for you help us father to be the kind of lamp stand you would have us be not by power by might but by your spirit father as we just once again before your throne commit ourselves into your hands in the name of yeshua our high priest who himself was our offering to give us access to you in the first place oh father thank you in his name amen [Music] you

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Published: Mon May 24 2021