Leviticus 22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily:

God Chats in the Closet

Religious leaders loved to make theater out of their prayers. The show nauseated Jesus. In Matthew 6:6 He said, "When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and He will reward you."
The words surely stunned Jesus' audience. The people were simple farmers and stonemasons. They couldn't enter the temple. But they could enter their closets. The point? He is low on fancy, high on accessibility. You need not woo him with location! Or wow him with eloquence. It's the power of a simple prayer.
Join me every day for 4 weeks, to pray 4 minutes, a simple prayer. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Before Amen

Leviticus 22

The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the Lord.

3 “Say to them: ‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.

4 “‘If a descendant of Aaron has a defiling skin disease[c] or a bodily discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is cleansed. He will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse or by anyone who has an emission of semen, 5 or if he touches any crawling thing that makes him unclean, or any person who makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be. 6 The one who touches any such thing will be unclean till evening. He must not eat any of the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water. 7 When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food. 8 He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, and so become unclean through it. I am the Lord.

9 “‘The priests are to perform my service in such a way that they do not become guilty and die for treating it with contempt. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

10 “‘No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it. 11 But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if slaves are born in his household, they may eat his food. 12 If a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions. 13 But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father’s household as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat it.

14 “‘Anyone who eats a sacred offering by mistake must make restitution to the priest for the offering and add a fifth of the value to it. 15 The priests must not desecrate the sacred offerings the Israelites present to the Lord 16 by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”

Unacceptable Sacrifices
17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—whether an Israelite or a foreigner residing in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the Lord, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19 you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. 20 Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. 21 When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. 22 Do not offer to the Lord the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as a food offering presented to the Lord. 23 You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox[d] or a sheep that is deformed or stunted, but it will not be accepted in fulfillment of a vow. 24 You must not offer to the Lord an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not do this in your own land, 25 and you must not accept such animals from the hand of a foreigner and offer them as the food of your God. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and have defects.’”

26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as a food offering presented to the Lord. 28 Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day.

29 “When you sacrifice a thank offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 30 It must be eaten that same day; leave none of it till morning. I am the Lord.

31 “Keep my commands and follow them. I am the Lord. 32 Do not profane my holy name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy 33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 22:4 The Hebrew word for defiling skin disease, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
Leviticus 22:23 The Hebrew word can refer to either male or female.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 17, 2014

Read: Jonah 1:1–2:2

Jonah Runs from the Lord

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”

7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”

12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”

13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

17 [a]Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Jonah’s Prayer
2 [b]Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said,

“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,
    and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead,[c]
    and Lord, you heard me!
Footnotes:

1:17 Verse 1:17 is numbered 2:1 in Hebrew text.
2:1 Verses 2:1-10 are numbered 2:2-11 in Hebrew text.
2:2 Hebrew from Sheol.

From Peeker To Seeker
By Randy Kilgore

I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. —Jonah 2:2

When our daughter was too young to walk or crawl, she created a way to hide from people when she wanted to be left alone or wanted her own way. She simply closed her eyes. Kathryn reasoned that anyone she couldn’t see also couldn’t see her. She used this tactic in her car seat when someone new tried to say hello; she used it in her highchair when she didn’t like the food; she even used it when we announced it was bedtime.

Jonah had a more grown-up strategy of hiding, but it wasn’t any more effective than our daughter’s. When God asked him to do something he didn’t want to do, he ran in the opposite direction. But he found out pretty quickly there is no place God couldn’t find him. In fact, Scripture is full of stories of God finding people when they didn’t necessarily want to be found (Ex. 2:11–3:6; 1 Kings 19:1-7; Acts 9:1-19).

Maybe you have tried to hide from God, or maybe you think even God can’t see you. Please know this: If God sees and hears the prayer of a rebellious prophet in the belly of a big fish, then He sees and hears you wherever you are, whatever you’ve done. But that’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s actually a great comfort. He’s always there, and He cares!

Thank You, God, that You are there for us.
We hear Your words: “You will seek Me
and find Me, when you search for Me
with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).
We need not fear the troubles around us as long as the eye of the Lord is on us.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 17, 2014

The Key of the Greater Work

. . . I say to you, he who believes in Me, . . . greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father —John 14:12

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 17, 2014

The Horizon Fix - #7245

I was having a conversation with a young man who was a student in a Missionary Aviation course. Now, he had only had classroom training. He did have a little experience when he visited the flight training facility. On the second day they said, "Okay, go for it." He was flying! Now, he was carrying his notepad with him the day I saw him, and I noticed the sentence he had written at the top of his notes. It was obviously something he thought he would be tested on either in the classroom or maybe in the cockpit someday. Actually, it could be life-or-death information on a particular day. Here's what it said: "Attitude-the relationship of the known to the horizon." Now, he told me that simple discipline is what keeps an aircraft stable. Maybe you, too.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Horizon Fix."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 12:1-2. It's kind of an Olympic scene. The idea here is an Olympic runner. "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance..." We're talking stability, steadiness here, right? "...the race marked out for us." How do you do that? "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith." The One who was there when you started; the One who is going to be there at your finish line.

Now, this verse tells us which way our horizon is supposed to be. I asked my student friend to explain about the attitude and the horizon. He said, "Well, it's important to keep your aircraft on course and at a consistent rate of speed. If your attitude is pitching in a way that tilts you downward, your speed picks up. If you tilt in a way that points you upward, your speed slows down." He said, "The only way to keep things steady is to lock in on the horizon and keep adjusting your course in relation to the horizon." Wow! What a lesson in spiritual stability! In emotional stability!

See, if you navigate or make your decisions by your feelings, you're going to be all over the place. Maybe you have been. Your feelings lie to you so much of the time. If you navigate by the approval of other people you're going to be up and down all the time. Are you tired of the inconsistency, the roller coaster, the confusion? Well, then, adjust your attitude so it's lined up squarely with the horizon, and that's Jesus. "Looking to Jesus" it says.

What does that mean practically? It means there's only one way to launch your day-with a horizon check. You don't just fix your eyes on Jesus once and for all and say, "Got that done." You've got to do it each new day. So you get His book, His love letter – the Bible – in your lap each day. You say, "Jesus, talk to me through this." You read it. Then you apply it to something you're going to face that day. Then you talk to Him about what He's said to you. Then you get on your knees and you pray through your day and ask Him to help you see each person through His eyes, each situation through His eyes, each conversation, each decision you need to deal with, each task. You consciously make it His day before you live it.

Then as the storm's blowing you around during that day, the clouds roll in and your feelings are all over the place, don't make the mistake that Peter did when he was walking on the water. Remember? He was looking at Jesus and he walked on water miraculously. Then he started to look at the storm. He looked away from Jesus and he started to sink.

As long as you're focused on Jesus and not on your feelings, not your environment, you're not going to sink. Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You." So, how's your attitude? Is it going up, going down, or going all over the place? Well, it's because probably you're not focused on the right place.

My student pilot friend said, "You have to focus on the horizon, because it is the only thing that never moves." Well, I only know one horizon that never moves. Jesus Christ of whom the Bible says, "He is the same yesterday, today and forever."