Parenting Leviticus Style

This was a little jewel I had not noticed previously reading through Leviticus, I feel like I am looking at this wonderful book with new eyes. So how many times have you been somewhere and you hear this....

"Owww, that hurt" cries little Sally in pain
"Sorry it was an accident" says little Johnny
"Oh, I am so sorry he didn't mean too" says Johnny Mom and off they go.

There was no consequence for Johnny and in fact Mom does not believe there should even be a consequence for the child that unintentionally did something to another person. Now I am talking about when it really was an accident, they honestly did not see other person. Normally, the child is not reprimanded and often not told to apologize or anything because it was an accident. Yet in Leviticus it speaks to the unintentional sin as follows:

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say to the Israelites: 'When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands- 3 " 'If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. Lev 4:1-3

The Bible is consistent in this attestation that there is punishment/discipline for unintentional sin as found in Numbers 35 the accidental murderer can retreat to a Refuge city. But if the murderer leaves the refuge city then the family of the victim can pretty much legally kill him.

So really isn't hitting, pushing, running smack into folks, slamming the door on someone,  etc.... these are all things where we are not paying attention to the people around us. In essence they (or we) are not: "lov[ing] your neighbor as yourself [which] is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." Mark 12:33 If we were loving our neighbors we would have looked before we slammed the door on them, ran haphazardly into them, slide down the slide onto them etc... 

In Leviticus (Numbers, Chronicles) the punishment for the unintentional sin is definitely less then the punishment for intentional sin. But there is still a punishment/discipline for the sin.Why? I know as I considered this I thought about how this would help to train our littles to always think of others first and to consider the possible negative (and positive) results of their actions.  I would also like to point out that God has mercy on these sins and thus so should we. The murderer has a place of refuge the accidental sinner has a lesser sacrifice to make.

The Bible points out that we are not to be lovers of pleasures (running full tilt, playing regardless of the danger to others, speaking their "mind" etc...) more then lovers of God. Ultimately, I want to raise kiddos who love their neighbors more then worldly pleasures and who do not make or seek excuses for their actions. How do you handle unintentional sin in your home?

May you be encouraged in your parenting to press forward toward the prize and as you search the word and find out God's will his good and perfect will for us all!

The Savior in you liver & kidneys

Right now I am so blessed to be traveling through Leviticus with our Lord. I do believe I heard a groan from many of you as I even mention any of the books of the Law. Truly, truly I say unto you this study has been wonderful and transformational as the Lord has been so kind to me and has revealed so much to me in his word. As I've been able to use it in my parenting and to grow my relationship with Him. I hope to share a few of my thoughts on Leviticus with you.

One of the reoccurring themes in Leviticus are the sacrifice of the kidneys and the livers of animals (also fat tails but I'm not there yet!). In the class living by the book the I learned its really important to pay attention to reoccurring words, phrases and themes.

"All its fat shall be offered: the fat tail and the fat that covers the inner parts, 4 both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys." Lev 7:3-4 (guilt offering) 

More References: Lev 3:4-11 (fellowship offering), Lev 4:9-11 (sin offering), Lev. 8:25 (consecrating the priest)

According to http://www.mamashealth.com/ : " They kidneys have a couple of different functions. The main purpose of the kidney is to separate urea, mineral salts, toxins, and other waste products from the blood. The kidneys also conserve water, salts, and electrolytes. At least one kidney must function properly for life to be maintained."

So kidneys separate toxins and waste from the water, salt and electrolytes that we need. My observation is that kidneys wash the blood. 

Mamas Health says the following about the liver: "The liver has many functions. Some of the functions are: to produce substances that break down fats, convert glucose to glycogen, produce urea (the main substance of urine), make certain amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), filter harmful substances from the blood (such as alcohol), storage of vitamins and minerals (vitamins A, D, K and B12) and maintain a proper level or glucose in the blood. The liver is also responsible for producing cholesterol. It produces about 80% of the cholesterol in your body."

So the Liver is also involved in the washing of the blood and also in the removal of harmful substances from our body.

Both of these organs work on cleaning the blood of the animal. They also separate what is good and needed from what is harmful.

1 John 1:6-8 says "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[a] sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

verses on blood from Biblegateway: Jesus & blood

 
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! Romans 5:9


That our God requires atonement for sin through blood and that the blood is required to return to fellowship. My little observation is that the sacrifice of the liver and the kidneys is reflective of Jesus death on the cross for our sin. That the first part of this book has been revealing the need and  foreshadowing  Jeusus' sacrifice for me(us) on the cross.
 
For me I think that the application is found said by  Paul in Romans 6:1-10
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.


If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."

Just as the kidneys and the livers work to remove the impurities from physical body that I (under the power of the Holy Spirit) work to remove impurities from my spiritual life. I too must hold onto the the salt and the water (Heb 10:22) but the toxins & impurities need to be released back to the devil.

From Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible in regards to the second half of Leviticus 8: The offerings of consecration. "In these types we see our great High Priest, even Christ Jesus, solemnly appointed, anointed, and invested with his sacred office, by his own blood, and the influences of his Holy Spirit. He sanctifies the ordinances of religion, to the benefit of his people and the honour of God the Father; who for his sake accepts our worship, though it is polluted with sin. We may also rejoice, that he is a merciful and faithful High Priest, full of compassion to the feeble-minded and tempest-tossed soul. All true Christians are consecrated to be spiritual priests. We should seriously ask ourselves, whether in our daily walk we study to maintain this character? and abound in spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Christ? If so, still there is no cause for boasting. Let us not despise our fellow-sinners; but remembering what we have done, and how we are saved, let us seek and pray for their salvation."


 I would encourage y'all to stay in the word and wash yourself with the word and see what the Lord has written within its sweet sweet pages to as Matthew Henry said to"maintain this character ...[and do we abound] in spiritual sacrifices?" This is work to be done, it's like training for a game let's play to win! Thank the Lord for opening my eyes to the lessons of Leviticus and that the word does not return void! I love the Old Testament how it constantly brings me full circle and how I get an opportunity to find Risen savior in my liver & kidney!

Psalm 127:3b

One of the last activities in the Explorer's unit study is playing a game that they provide in the unit. The game is made to be about 16X22 and attached to a file folder. I however had that sucker blown up to about 18"X3' at Copy Corner for the grand total of $2.50. I then took it home to add color because I was to cheap to get a color copy made of it.

A funny thing happened when I got it home and started to paint the game board. My small people wanted to help me out..??!!

Mom I want to help?

It must be perfect you cannot help me you might make a mistake....

"Okay Honey"

Well, she didn't stay in the lines and she kept moving the thing so I was also unable to stay in the lines. She nearly knocked the water over on the whole thing and she refused to rinse her brush in between colors.... And I am so glad she helped! Because now it's it is perfect. When we pulled the game down today to get it ready to start playing she was glowing with 5 year old pride!

Seriously, what is this life about? Perfect game boards, projects and homes???? Not for me, the word even tells us It's not about us! So since that's for sure, I'm just glad at that moment I was abiding in Him and I could clearly see Him in the moment. My hearts desire is to walk in these moments abiding in Him always. So I hope you make something perfect today too!

Psalm 127:3b "children a reward from him."

RH

Is Leviticus out dated?

I know I am a weirdo because I spend just as much time (in fact more because there are more books) in the Old Testament as the New. Praying for revelation on how to walk and how to live this life for His glory. As I read the pages of Leviticus I am reminded of my previous sinful attitude towards the books of the law. As I read the rich pages of Leviticus I cannot help but remind my self that God's word does not return void.

"...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isiah 55:11

The laws of Leviticus are outdated because we no longer make burnt offerings?

I charge the premise of the question is wrong. Because perhaps we must still make burnt offerings...STOP do not go and grab your poor cat, dog, lamb or bull and throw it in your fireplace! ... I just wonder if today our burnt offerings are things of life divorce, affairs, , arguments, miscarriage, illness, strife of all sorts. Even on the other side raising children & marriage blessings which can also put us in through the refining fire. We are called to lay these things on the altar and to become a pleasing aroma to God. Maybe these are today's burnt offerings?(Lev 1-3)

I've been cleansed through God's refining fire I am a new creation trough the death burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ. I am growing in perfection (Matt 5:48) I know that Leviticus is not outdated and though I am not under the Law, Leviticus helps me to understand how & why perseverance under trials (James 1) perfects me.

Rejoice,

RH

Hidden Treasures

Sometimes our chickens think they are still wild! They lay their eggs all around the yard because we do let them free range throughout the day. While we were clearing land for the garden we found this treasure. We stopped what we were doing and gathered up our potential treasure.

Just like us the birds have forgotten where their home is and are nesting anywhere.How often have we spent so much time running around that our homes are forgotten. Either they are unkempt, poorly stocked and we cannot remember the last time we sat down to have a meal or just talk to a child.

I love how Titus reminds us to "..to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." Titus 2:5

Let us not be like the man who forgets who he is after he looks into the mirror but let us always remember who we are in the Lord.

Growing Weary....Encouragement from Hagar, an unlikely source

While reading Genesis I really looked at Hagar, Sarah's Maidservant, just as a tired mom. Early one morning Hagar is cast out from her home with Sarah & Abraham...

"Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt." Genesis 21:14-22

I cannot even imagine what it must of been like for to be in the middle of the desert lost and without direction, water, hope and a young child. Then at the moment when she has given up the Lord spoke hope into her heart! She continued and the Word then tells us that God was with her child and because she was obedient the child grew into a great (as in large) nation (Islamic world).

Though I have read that passage several times I had not found encouragement in it nor did I expect to find a blessing in a woman I previously perceived as a curse. But the Lord did bless this woman with a child, provision and his presence.

Recently , I have wanted to sit down and place our children under a bush and sob too: "Lord this is too hard, my yoke is heavy." Child training can be so hard, time consuming and even isolating. It's hard when you feel like your prayers are going unanswered. When you continue to identify additional behaviors in children that are not righteous but scornful or selfish. But as time goes by I think I am learning to wait on God's timing to remember we are training them up and that my younger children are not yet saved. Thus, sinners sin and as I am not training for external obedience but instead for righteousness the path is not easy.

Still the Lord is faithful each day the Lord has been telling me: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 So each day I have trudged on, on the path the Lord has laid before me, still seeing very little progress. Yet the Lord has been faithful to remind me through my friend Kim B. that child rearing is hard work, and in his still quiet voice that I should not grow weary.

Now, how wonderful of the Lord to show me that he is my hope and that he should be my focus. "Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water". Which reminds me of the woman at the well where Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14 The word tells us that God is the living water and if we drink from Him we will never thirst. So I too like Hagar will stop sobbing about her situation and in focused prayer continue ahead drinking from the Lords spring. Knowing God will complete the work started in her, in me and in my children.

Praise be to a faithful and everlasting God!

RH

The Wall

So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common. Ezekiel 42:20

According to dictionary.com common has 47 meanings, I think these two are the most relevant to the passage....
4.widespread; general; ordinary: common knowledge.
5.of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar: a common event; a common mistake.

We are not a common people the Bible tells us we are to be his holy people, holy race (as in God's people not as in black folks or white folks...just Christian folks), and we are to be holy as he is holy!

Dictionary.com defines holy in the following ways:
1. specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated: holy ground.
3.saintly; godly; pious; devout: a holy life.
4.having a spiritually pure quality: a holy love.
5.entitled to worship or veneration as or as if sacred: a holy relic.

Do we recognize that we are set apart? specially recognized? entitled to worship? Have you ever thought about the fact that we are entitled, God will receive our worship. Wow!

Finally dictionary.com defines a wall
1.any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
2.Usually, walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.

I love that walls are for defensive purposes, and also for protection and privacy. We are defending ourselves from what is common, worldly.

So here is how I read the passage.... So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a defended area of private protected space around it, 875 feet long and 875 feet wide, to separate the specially recognized from the ordinary or familiar. interpretation of Ezekiel 42:20

Does your family have a defended area of private protected holy space around it. Or are we a colander and everything is getting into our homes without our review? Ezekiel calls us to be watchman on the wall : Ezekiel 3:17"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.

It's time to fortify your wall, put up your defenses create a holy space and do not let the common place enter!

What kind of pot are we?

Jeremiah reminds me of present time as all throughout Jeremiah the Lord is warning his people that unless they turn from their sins and return to him destruction is coming. In Jeremiah he provides us with this beautiful image of the Lord molding us and handling us:

Jeremiah 18:1-9
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

I love this verse to know that the Lord can shape us and mold us into something wonderful and beautiful. That he his fingers are all over us as he is doing this and that we have such an intimate knowledge of him and he of us! What I had failed to notice is this verse that comes in the next chapter:

This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle...... 10 "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. Jeremiah 19:1-3,10

I do not pretend to fully understand the word of the Lord but to me it seems like we are in one of two conditions. We are still malleable and able to be formed and worked with like the clay in Chapter 18. Or we have hardened our hearts, closed our ears and we are doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Then what else is there to do with us but to break us like this pot. That we would never be the same like in Chapter 18.

To me that is terrifying that we could come to this point where all that is left is to smash as an example to others.

All throughout Jeremiah the Lord keeps warning us against backsliding: Jeremiah 15:6You have rejected me," declares the LORD. "You keep on backsliding. So I will lay hands on you and destroy you; I can no longer show compassion. (& Jeremiah 2:19, 3:22,5:6,4:17)

This terrifying to me to know that I have to guard against backsliding like the Israelites who were in their second generation of pagan worship. We may not worship Baal but what are our idols, the things we mediate upon, memorize, watch for read etc...eating, shopping, tv, other people, our children, spouses, church??? I know I am guilty but the Lord has provided a way out in Isiah the Lord tells us we have be watchmen

Isaiah 62:6 6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest

Are we backsliding as a church? What is keeping us from reading our Bibles and knowing what He says, prayer, meditating on his word, fasting....It's terrifying to me, it's constantly on my mind.

Are we still malleable, there are so many of us that have already been broken. What does the Lord lay on your heart on a regular basis? Do you fear the Lord? To whom are you accountable, who is watching over you? If you want me to help you be matched up in prayer group post that too.

Asa's Heart

I was reading in 2 Chronicles that "Asa's heart was blameless all his days". It made me think about how can my children have a heart like Asa. Then there is David a man after God's own heart. For sure I can see that are seekers in fact in 2 Chronicles 15:2 says: "The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you,"` There are these "seek him" verses throughout the Bible. So I want to make my kids into seekers of the most High! I think this Valentines Day instead of waking up to their treats at bed side they will have a mini scavenger hunt (to seek Him) to find the goodies. We will read/talk about: 2 Chronicles 15:2 & Matthew 7:11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ....I hope my children look back on their Valentines and know that we loved them and gave them good gifts but that the Father gives the best gifts and that they always seek Him.

Happy Valentines Day!

The McVay's