{"id":18340,"date":"2021-11-01T22:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/leviticus_18_19-30-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T21:45:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T04:45:10","slug":"leviticus_19_1-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/leviticus_19_1-10\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Heart for the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leviticus 19:1-10 \u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Leviticus 19:1-10.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Leviticus 19:1-4 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to Moses,
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, am holy.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4:\u00a0\u00a0Just as God is holy (i.e. pure, set apart), we, being made in God\u2019s image, are called to be holy as well.\u00a0\u00a0Part of being holy is respecting our parents (v3), observing a Sabbath (a weekly time to rest) (v3) and to turn away from idols (v4).\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Holiness shows up in how we respect God, how we respect others (including our parents), and how we respect ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leviticus 19:5-8 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the\u00a0LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure and will not be accepted.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has desecrated what is holy to the\u00a0LORD; that person must be cut off from his people.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-8:\u00a0\u00a0Unlike other offerings described in Leviticus, in the case of a fellowship offering, the person giving the offering was expected to eat part of the meat being offered as a fellowship offering (see Leviticus 7:11-18).\u00a0\u00a0Here verses 6-7 say that by the third day the meat should not be eaten any more but should be burnt up.\u00a0\u00a0Why?\u00a0\u00a0It is not entirely clear, but keep in mind that the Israelites did not have refrigerators.\u00a0\u00a0So a possible reason could be to protect people from pathogenic bacteria like salmonella and e coli.\u00a0\u00a0If that is the reason for the prohibition, then it suggests that God\u2019s commands are for our protection and our good.<\/p>\n

Leviticus 19:9-10 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 9-10:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Leviticus\u00a019:9, God commands His people not to reap to the very edges of their fields or go through their fields a second time to pick up any left over crops they may have missed.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Is it because God is promoting waste or laziness?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It’s because\u00a0your Heavenly Father has a heart for the poor.\u00a0 He wants us His children to have a similar heart as well.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s as if God is saying, “Work hard. Provide for your family.\u00a0 But don’t forget to leave something for those who have less than you do.”<\/p>\n

Question: is there margin in your life for those who have less than you do?\u00a0 Or do you use your time, your money and your talents “to the very edges” on yourself such that there is nothing left over for others in need?<\/p>\n

Perhaps you already have a group of people that you\u2019re focused on serving, but let’s remember to leave some for those who may not fall within that group and who may not be our main focus.\u00a0 That’s what Jesus did.\u00a0 His main target group was “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), but he still left something for those who didn’t fall within his main target group, like the Canaanite woman whose daughter was desperate for healing (see Matthew 15:21-28).\u00a0 He didn’t sacrifice his mission to serve the non-target people, but he served the non-target people “along the way”.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for showing us that holiness shows up in very practical ways, in the way I treat You, others and myself.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You for having a heart for the poor.\u00a0\u00a0I pray that I would leave margin in my life so that I can care for those who have less than I do.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Leviticus 18:19-30.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Leviticus 18:19-30 (NIV)
\n19\u00a0\u00a0“‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
\n20\u00a0\u00a0“‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
\n21\u00a0\u00a0“‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the\u00a0LORD.
\n22\u00a0\u00a0“‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
\n23\u00a0\u00a0“‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion…….<\/p>\n

On verses 19-30:\u00a0\u00a0Here we learn one of the reasons why God was ousting out the nations that occupied Canaan and bringing the Israelites to occupy Canaan in their place, which is that these other nations had, in God\u2019s eyes, become defiled by their idol worship (which included sacrificing their children to the god Molech) (v21) and sexual practices which displeased God (v19-20, 22-23).\u00a0\u00a0Rather than seeing themselves as subject to God\u2019s commands, these other nations carried on life with an attitude of entitlement, thinking, \u201cIt\u2019s my life and my body and I can do whatever I want with it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In carrying on these practices, verses 24b and 27 say that these other nations defiled themselves, defiled the land that they lived in, and thus were cut off and vomited out of the land.\u00a0\u00a0The Israelites are told not to make the same mistakes as these other nations as they get ready to occupy that same land.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When we live with an attitude of entitlement, thinking, \u201cIt\u2019s my life and my body and I can do whatever I want with it\u201d, we make ourselves the centre of our own universe and push God to the wayside.\u00a0\u00a0We think that living this way is the key to our happiness, when in fact living with an attitude of entitlement eventually brings us misery, causing us eventually to be cut off from God\u2019s presence and God\u2019s blessings.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18340"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18341,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18340\/revisions\/18341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}