As I was reading through this, with a little help from my cheater bible commentary, I was struck by these sacrifices and started to think about the volume of blood and noises and commotion that must have been a part of this effort, day in and day out. I have butchered my share of live chickens and executed many trapped varmints and some other animals and it’s messy, they fight and thrash and run and splatter blood everywhere. How could they restrain a bull and slit his throat? I can’t picture this, but it must have been dramatic and memorable. That is what our sin today lacks is the seriousness. To atone for their sin took a horrible array of messy death and blood (same as ours yes!). We just sit quietly and pray forgive me Father, knowing it already has. I don’t really have more than an intellectual knowledge of the blackness and depth of my sin, how can I translate this to my kids? Honestly I want to go outside and do the role play. Get a goat and sacrifice it and sprinkle the blood and tell Jason - see? This is from you not obeying mommy - while the goat is bleeding out. Lol. As much as I don’t like paying for goat deed I won’t do this, don’t call the cops on me just yet I was just thinking how different our lives are and as much as we study and explain and hypothesize, we can’t know what it was like to live in that cultural context. But hopefully it makes me take my sin more seriously, and that of the kids.
",,,don't call the cops..." 🤣🤣🤣 Yeah, we do miss the (sometimes *literal*) hands-on seriousness of this stuff. I also agree that if it were to be a regular part of our...um...religious practice?...then we would have a whole other level of appreciation for the cost and consequence of living according to his ways (and, I suppose, *not* living according to his ways, too) - jeffrey
So there's some interesting wording we're dealing with here, stuff that church people and perhaps even the non-religious would find noteworthy: * one word that's translated “offering” or “sacrifice” is pronounced something like “core-bawn”, and conveys the meaning of coming close or drawing near. Jesus got onto certain folks for their misuse of this concept in Mark 7, but the intention here seems pretty clear: These offerings (done according to the instructions) are a way to draw near to the LORD. ** another word, specifically used in relation to the offerings being consumed (like the burnt offering), sounds something like “owe-lah”. It was something that “went up in smoke”, completely consumed. I was rather shocked to discover that the Greek version of the Old Testament used the word ὁλοκαύτωμα (later translated in Latin as holocaustum) Now there’s a word that you don’t have to be a Bible student to be familiar with. - jeffrey
The concept of the sin offering laid out here is for *unintentional* violation of the instructions. That is, if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, or if you did something you weren’t supposed to… that’s a “sin”. The Biblical definition of sin was related to the work of a teacher (and even an archer or stone-slinger). Much like sending an arrow or a rock downrange, a teacher uses instruction to send their students a certain direction, to achieve a certain goal. If the arrow, stone, or student fails to reach that goal, they have missed what was being aimed at, missed the goal. Back to Leviticus 1...if God’s people missed the goal, there was a way to make up for it. BUT the underlying assumption here is that they were trying to hit the target. - jeffrey
Don't know about you guys, but as I read certain parts of the Bible (many might lump all of Leviticus into this category) I have sometimes struggled with "what a burden/how hard this is". ...But as we dig into this stuff, I think we'll see that, yes, there are rules: I believe the number is 613 if you're interested in the total count, but even that is a tiny fraction of what we're supposed to be in compliance with as law-abiding citizens of the United States. ...Another thing to consider is that the focus of these offerings is on God, not us. Here's how we draw near to him...let's draw near to him. ...One last thought: he gives us options. Do it like *this*; if you can't do this, then do *that*; if that's still too much, then *such and such* will work to achieve the same goal. That doesn't sound rigid and demanding to me. It fits with the picture of a Father who is dealing with the kids he loves. Some of them are great rule followers and overachievers, and others don't have the resources (or perhaps even to attention to detail 🙃), but still want to do right by dad. And He makes a way for his kids to do right by dad, because he loves them and wants them to come close and be with him. - jeffrey
As I was reading through this, with a little help from my cheater bible commentary, I was struck by these sacrifices and started to think about the volume of blood and noises and commotion that must have been a part of this effort, day in and day out. I have butchered my share of live chickens and executed many trapped varmints and some other animals and it’s messy, they fight and thrash and run and splatter blood everywhere. How could they restrain a bull and slit his throat? I can’t picture this, but it must have been dramatic and memorable.
ReplyDeleteThat is what our sin today lacks is the seriousness. To atone for their sin took a horrible array of messy death and blood (same as ours yes!). We just sit quietly and pray forgive me Father, knowing it already has. I don’t really have more than an intellectual knowledge of the blackness and depth of my sin, how can I translate this to my kids? Honestly I want to go outside and do the role play. Get a goat and sacrifice it and sprinkle the blood and tell Jason - see? This is from you not obeying mommy - while the goat is bleeding out. Lol. As much as I don’t like paying for goat deed I won’t do this, don’t call the cops on me just yet I was just thinking how different our lives are and as much as we study and explain and hypothesize, we can’t know what it was like to live in that cultural context. But hopefully it makes me take my sin more seriously, and that of the kids.
",,,don't call the cops..." 🤣🤣🤣
DeleteYeah, we do miss the (sometimes *literal*) hands-on seriousness of this stuff. I also agree that if it were to be a regular part of our...um...religious practice?...then we would have a whole other level of appreciation for the cost and consequence of living according to his ways (and, I suppose, *not* living according to his ways, too)
- jeffrey
Knowing “He” already has
ReplyDeleteSo there's some interesting wording we're dealing with here, stuff that church people and perhaps even the non-religious would find noteworthy:
ReplyDelete* one word that's translated “offering” or “sacrifice” is pronounced something like “core-bawn”, and conveys the meaning of coming close or drawing near. Jesus got onto certain folks for their misuse of this concept in Mark 7, but the intention here seems pretty clear: These offerings (done according to the instructions) are a way to draw near to the LORD.
** another word, specifically used in relation to the offerings being consumed (like the burnt offering), sounds something like “owe-lah”. It was something that “went up in smoke”, completely consumed. I was rather shocked to discover that the Greek version of the Old Testament used the word ὁλοκαύτωμα (later translated in Latin as holocaustum) Now there’s a word that you don’t have to be a Bible student to be familiar with.
- jeffrey
The concept of the sin offering laid out here is for *unintentional* violation of the instructions. That is, if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, or if you did something you weren’t supposed to… that’s a “sin”.
ReplyDeleteThe Biblical definition of sin was related to the work of a teacher (and even an archer or stone-slinger). Much like sending an arrow or a rock downrange, a teacher uses instruction to send their students a certain direction, to achieve a certain goal. If the arrow, stone, or student fails to reach that goal, they have missed what was being aimed at, missed the goal.
Back to Leviticus 1...if God’s people missed the goal, there was a way to make up for it. BUT the underlying assumption here is that they were trying to hit the target.
- jeffrey
Don't know about you guys, but as I read certain parts of the Bible (many might lump all of Leviticus into this category) I have sometimes struggled with "what a burden/how hard this is".
ReplyDelete...But as we dig into this stuff, I think we'll see that, yes, there are rules: I believe the number is 613 if you're interested in the total count, but even that is a tiny fraction of what we're supposed to be in compliance with as law-abiding citizens of the United States.
...Another thing to consider is that the focus of these offerings is on God, not us. Here's how we draw near to him...let's draw near to him.
...One last thought: he gives us options. Do it like *this*; if you can't do this, then do *that*; if that's still too much, then *such and such* will work to achieve the same goal. That doesn't sound rigid and demanding to me. It fits with the picture of a Father who is dealing with the kids he loves. Some of them are great rule followers and overachievers, and others don't have the resources (or perhaps even to attention to detail 🙃), but still want to do right by dad. And He makes a way for his kids to do right by dad, because he loves them and wants them to come close and be with him.
- jeffrey