11-16-09

Monday, November 16, 2009
Dr. D
Temple Compound and Beyond

Temple Compound
The book of Exodus devotes 13 chapters to this structure!
How do i get devotional material out of this?
If we know how to read it.
Sacred space discussions always tell us something about God
two spheres, centrality of altar and ark of covenant
east entrance with elaborate system of gates.
This God is willing to have a relationship with his people even with his incredibly holy and protected presence.
Blood soaks up the sin, it contains the sin, blood is like a sponge. It is still sinful blood cuz it was a substitute, the sins were transferred over to it.
Altar of incense, protective cloud for the glory cloud.
Reality of Detail, and try to say that each detail tells us not to deal with our God lightly, enter into worship cautiously, what is God’s name? his character? He is the most supreme and must be recognized as such.
The point is not in the details, but in the overall message.
Every single dimension is designed to say your God is holy, take him seriously.
ALSO, genealogies, God wants us to know his working in us, and to point us to his faithfulness.
Old and New Covenants
Eph 1: every spiritual blessing through Christ
Matt 6: 33. Does this mean Christians shall never die of hunger?
Content with little content with much, and elsewhere Paul says he has hungered.
There is something concrete, over-anticipated promises (health and wealth), God hasn’t promised to remove the storm, but we can have such peace!
That is part of the blessing won for us in Christ.
Family w/o a job: at one level, don’t want to think God has won for a job for me... yes he has, but not necessarily right now, but he has granted the peace to get through that with the strength he provides.
Not supposed to say, we are in a cursed age, Christ has conquered it all in the future... i wanna suffer like Jesus, you have a needle so i can poke myself? That is incorrect
supposed to say “don’t like the curse” deteriorating body isn’t “fun” and he had friends that were sick and he couldn’t change those realities.
Yet, he was able to experience Joy in his life, a compelling commitment to keep going.
Can we go beyond the individual? Yes, community is here at BCS, we help each other in our walks of faith. Heb.12:14 encourage one to not sin.
Identity in Christ that talks about us being together, Church, Holy Nation, Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, Sheep of the same flock, people belonging to God.
Kingdom happening with hospitality. Love is here now in part, it is coming wholly. We need to be careful though, because there can be eschatological realities within a group of interaction, but also within the individual who is all alone who is struck by the Lord’s Word.
Phil text, God meets us in both situations of starving and of plenty.
Poverty and Pride: spend so much $ to spend Dr. D, and building a school that makes kings. These could foster pride, but God will keep us mindful of the poor, especially in our abundance.
Heart of Leviticus:
Yahweh, the One who provides a penal Substitute
Atonement Defined:
The process by which God purifies and re-consecrates his contaminated and desecrated Tabernacle and people by turning his wrath away from the sinner onto a substitute, thus restoring the relationship and right order.
Atonement is the saving act of God which according to Scripture makes possible, and in a sense constitutes, his redeeming and restoring work. It is the means by which his righteousness is re-established in a cosmic order marred temporally by rebellion against its Creator and King” Yarbrough “atonement” NDBT, 388.
Priests were called to distinguish between holy and common, the clean and the unclean.
ON A DIAGRAM
lamb without blemish for the sacrifices: suggests that the lamb is valuable... but... that is for a peace offering, saying here i am, this is me, i’m giving it to you. Peace offerings were potlucks in presence of God. No blemish, it is in right order with creation, but it is dying?!?! SOOO it isn’t being killed for its own defilement, but for ours, so we receive the righteousness of the lamb.
1 Cor 6:9-11“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV)
Paul is saying they were cleansed from their former way.
We are called to be a holy people, but the declaration here is to live out your declared identity.
The israelites identity is expressed in how they live out their obedience to the covenant.
Means of Atonement
The Shedding of blood (life for life)
Lev 17:11“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
(Leviticus 17:11 ESV)
Heb 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
(Hebrews 9:22 ESV)
OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES HANDOUT
Whenever we sin against someone else, we are sinning against God’s creation, and we are sinning against God. Before a woman is a man’s wife, she is God’s girl, so no right is given for the man. Desecration: treating what is holy as if it was common, that is a no no.
Contamination: holy thing that is touched by something that isn’t holy and is thus made unholy.
The Types of Sins athat can be atoned for?
Grasping the nature of the “high-handed” sins
Central Text: Nm 15:30-31 ““If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them.”“But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”” (Numbers 15:30–31 ESV)
Right after this, there is a high-handed sin of a man gathering sticks on the sabbath.
Two Other Occurrences:
Exod 14:8 “went out BOLDLY”
Num 33:3 “On the next day the Israelites started out BOLDLY”
Tentative conclusion: High handed sins are those done boldly and brazenly. To these there is no means for atonement, and they must be cut off from the community.
ESV contrasts high handed and unintentional sins: why did ESV translate it as unintentional.
Grasping the nature of “unintentional sins” Lit sins of error
Frequent Qualifiers Suggesting “Unintentional”
Lev 4:22-23““When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the LORD his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish,”
(Leviticus 4:22–23 ESV)
Lev 4:27-28 ““If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.”
(Leviticus 4:27–28 ESV)
Lev 5:17-18 ““If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.”
(Leviticus 4:27–28 ESV)
Sins of Error/Thoughtlessness Though not necessarily Unintentional
1 Sam 26:21 “Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.””
(1 Samuel 26:21 ESV)
Eccl 5:5-7 “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.”
(Ecclesiastes 5:5–7 ESV)
He didn’t pause, then it just clicked, it was a thoughtless act. It is an issue that demands, ultimately, the cross. Fear God and keep your word.
I’m going to pray for you... are you committing to praying for them daily, how intentional are you when you are saying there? Connection between swearing oaths and being a people of God. Watch your words, and be mindful to keep them.
Texts where sacrifice is allowed for intentional, though thoughtless sins. ESV says there can be a sacrifice only for unintentional sins.
Lev. 6:1-5 “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt.”(Leviticus 6:1–5 ESV)
Now it seems that there are 3 categories, not only 2.
These are intentional, and he gets a guilt offering.
We have to ask ourselves... sins in error, and it is made known to him... if unintentional means he didn’t know about it, why do we sometimes find the “found out about it” phrase and sometimes not??? So thus it is the qualifier that makes one a “SIN OF ERROR” and the other a “HIGH HANDED SIN” Sooooo the word in and of itself doesn’t mean unintentional.
Sins can only be atoned when followed by
Realization of Guilt: Purification offering: lev. 4:13, 22, 27, 5:2, 3, 4, 5; Reparation Offering: lev 5:7, 6:4, 5; Num 5:6
Ps 51:16-17 “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
(Psalms 51:16–17 ESV)
Pagan View: God-----Sacrifice----- Person All Good
Proper View: God-----Different heart------sacrifice
What we offer him, he determines whether or not he will accept it by what is on the inside.
The mercy won at the cross is what enables the grace at the beginning here. My response to God is one of brokenness or i will not receive forgiveness. I will not enjoy rest.
Prov 21:3, 27
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9 ESV)
Conclusions
Sacrificial atonement is barred to the wanton sinner, to the one who acts flauntingly who reviles the Lord but not to the deliberate sinner who... is seized by remorse. “ milgrom, lev. 1-16, 369-70
Heb 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”
(Hebrews 10:26–27 ESV)
The Need and Expectation for more than OT Sacrifices
The Tabernacel and its pageantry were pictures/shadows of a greater reality
exod 25:8-9, 40
Zech 3:8-9
Pictures and patterns that point to reality in Christ.

Growing in Holiness
The Call and Need for Sanctification:
Leve 11:44 “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.”
(Leviticus 11:44 ESV)
Lev 20:26 “You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.”
(Leviticus 20:26 ESV)
1 Pet 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””
(1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV)
Roman 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
(Romans 6:17–18 ESV)
The nature of Sanctification:
Def: ever increasing holy state and not just holy status.
Holiness in Lev. 19:
Called to be Holy, picture in Lev. 19 of what that looks like, no real specific order, eating, buying, selling it impacts every aspect of life.
The Means of Sanctification
God is the primary enabler of human holiness:
Lev 22;31-33 ““So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD.””
(Leviticus 22:31–33 ESV)
Human holiness is a proper and natural response to God’s holiness manifest through:
Atonement Lev 9:24 and 10:3
God needs to be sanctified? No, just seen, reveled and displayed as HOLY. God is being shown as something that is unlike anything else. This is an expression of sanctification.
The disclosure of himself and his will Exod. 20:20 “Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.””
(Exodus 20:20 ESV)
The Means for Sanctification
Human Holiness is motivated through God’s disciplining hand:
Curses are blessings in disguise for those who learn from them: Lev 26: 18, 21, 23, 27
What can motivate my holiness? Experiencing the curses is one of them. They are instructive and nurturing. This is the context of discipline.

Divine Discipline nurtures holiness: Heb 12:9-11 “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
(Hebrews 12:9–11 ESV)
Human holiness is motivated through God’s promises of blessing and curse.
faith in God’s promises creates hope, and what we hope for tomorrow changes who we are today:
blessings: lev 26: 1-13, deu 18:1-14, 30:3-10
Curses/warnings: lev 26:14-39; Deut 28:15-68; 29:19-21
2 Pet 1:4 “by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
(2 Peter 1:4 ESV)