The most important thing in the world
What is the most important thing in the world at the moment? What do people strive to be? HAPPY – people want ultimate happiness in their lives.
Happiness if the chief pursuit of most people today, including us Christians. We all look to Jesus to solve our problems, carry our burdens, but we don’t actually want him to control our lives and change our characters.
We are selfish people – but we shouldn’t be, we should praise God in all times – in the bad times and in the good times.
We should strive to be holy. It does say in the people eight times that God said to His people “Be Holy for I am Holy” – and God means it. Eight times may not be a lot when you take into consideration the size of the Bible, but it needs to be taken notice of.
Yes, God does want His children to be happy, but true happiness begins with holiness.
The book of Leviticus in the Old Testament is a book which teaches us how to avoid sin and how to grow in holiness. It tells us how to approach holiness and appropriate it into our lives. The word holy is used 93 times in the book of Leviticus.
You may read Leviticus and think it’s boring, I am guilty of this also and you may feel that it doesn’t relate to the 20th Century, but the spiritual principle in this book apply to Christians today – with the key verse being “Be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11 v 44-45).
Leviticus itself is quoted or referred to over 100 times in the New Testament. Who knew?
The book of Leviticus explains to us fire basic themes that relate to the life of holiness:
- A Holy God
- A Holy Priesthood
- A Holy People
- A Holy Land
- A Holy Saviour
A Holy God
The emphasis in the Bible is on the holiness of God and not on the love of God - “Love is central in God, but holiness is central in love”.
The holiness of God is positive and active. It is God’s perfect nature at work in accomplishing His perfect will.
The Hebrew word for holy used in Leviticus means “that which is set apart and marked off”, that which is different. Anything that God said was holy, had to be treated differently from the common things of life in the Hebrew camp – the Sabbath (Exodus 16 v 23) and the Priests (Leviticus 21 v 7-8)
“Holy One of Israel” is one of the repeated names of God in Scripture. It is used 30 times in the book of Isaiah alone.
A Holy Priesthood
Aaron was the first high priest. Every priest was a Levite (from the tribe of Levi) but not every Levite was a priest.
The name Leviticus comes from Levi and means “pertaining to the Levites”
God insisted that the priests be holy men, set apart for His service alone. They were responsible for teaching the law, leading the worshippers in praising God.
Only the holy priesthood could approach God’s altar (Exodus 28 v 39-43)
Now with the death and resurrection of Christ, we are all as Christian’s part of the holy priesthood (1 Peter 2 v 5-9 and Revelation 1-6)
A Holy People
God’s purpose for Israel was that the nation be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19 v 6)
A Holy Land
The people belonged to the Lord because He had redeemed them from Egypt to be His very own, and the land belonged to the Lord, and He gave it to Israel with the stipulation that they do nothing to defile it.
A holy God wants his holy people to live in a holy land
A Holy Saviour
To study the Bible and not see Jesus Christ is to miss the major theme of the book (Luke 24 v 47). The law was a “shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10 v 1)
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