I’ve Never Read Leviticus...It’s Too Boring

If you’ve said these words or thought them, let’s talk. 

There’s no point in feeling guilted into bible reading. God doesn’t desire mere outward acts of devotion to try to make Him happy. He is already pleased with you because you are clothed in Christ. End of story. 

Now you have some freedom, a bit of wiggle room. The bible is different if approached, not as a chore, but as a hang out sesh with a friend or a family member. 

Here’s the deal, when you love someone, you try to get to know them and understand them. But the hard part of building that relationship is that their background is really different from yours, so you have to learn a bit about their background in order to really appreciate who they are and get to know them. And if you love them, it’s worth the effort. 

The Old Testament was written to a group of folks thousands of years ago. Their context was a lot different than yours. The ‘boring’ books of the bible are actually really interesting if you understand a bit more about what is going on. 

As you make your way through Leviticus or Numbers or 1 Chronicles, just remember three words: context, context, context! 

A helpful resource to make it through these books, especially if you never have, is the ESV Study Bible. It is a handy tool to help bring context to all those genealogies and laws. 

These books were first delivered to a culture orally, instead of in written form. And the whole community gathered together to hear the word read. This changes the entire mode of communication. When you’re writing a speech, it will be different than when you’re writing a paper for your college class. 

Remember school camps, when they called out all the schools present, all the kids would cheer when their school was called and you would wait until your school was called and then you’d cheer. 

What if that was all written down and you read it from page? It wouldn’t translate as well, would it. 

As you read through the genealogies, remember that. People were waiting to hear about how their ancestors played a roll in the story of God, they’d get really excited when they heard their grandpa’s name or their great-great-great-great-grandpa’s name. 

As for all the repetition in those books, remember that the scribes didn’t have italics or bold fonts to illustrate their point, the only way they could draw out an idea is by repeating it. 

These are just a couple of tips if you have tried, without success, to read through the bible, but have been discouraged by some of the literature. 

At the end of the day, the whole bible points to Jesus and teaches us about who He is and about who we are. The details about the animal sacrifices remind us that God is truly holy and that we really do need atonement. The instructions for the temple remind us of how magnificent God is and that now, we are the temples of the living God!

Like Paul told Timothy, “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Paul wasn’t referring the the New Testament books, he was writing those at the time, he was referring to the Jewish Scriptures, our Old Testament.

At the end of the day, sometimes reading those hard-to-read books is an exercise in faith. Sometimes, we just need to trust God that He wrote these for us to know Him better, even if we don’t feel like we’re getting to know Him better while reading them. 

You might just be surprised when and where you see God as you make your way through the Bible!

Worldly Grief

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. - 2 Cor. 7:10

DISAPPOINTED IN YOURSELF?

What is your immediate reaction after you have sinned? Do you beat yourself up? Tell yourself that you’re better than that? Are you disappointed in yourself? Are you distraught because you never thought you would do such a thing? Are you afraid because others may find out? 

The problem with all of these reactions is that they stem from worldly grief, rather than godly grief. Read over that list again, it describes a person who thinks very highly of their own ability to walk in holiness. One might even say that the attitudes above are what Paul is talking when he asks the Galatians, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh” (Gal. 3:3)?

DO YOU NEED GRACE?

We are a people saved solely by grace. We needed God to save us because we couldn’t save ourselves. If this was the beginning of our faith, why do we abandon this mindset as we continue in our faith. The truth is, we need Christ to save us every second of every day. We are in constant need of His grace and His sanctifying power provided by the Spirit. 

If we are honest with ourselves, we are really far worse than we could ever believe, not far better. When we sin, we get an insight into how much in need of a Savior we are rather than into how poor of a savior we ended up being. 

If worldly grief is the wrong way to respond to sin, how are we supposed to respond to sin? What is godly grief? Paul provides some insight when he examines the fruit of godly grief in the lives of the Corinthians: “For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter” (2 Cor. 7:11).

THE FRUIT OF GODLY GRIEF

Godly grief yields godly fruit. When we sin, we are not letting ourselves down, as worldly grief makes you think, we are disobeying a God whose love we cannot even comprehend. Godly grief should be marked by grieving, rather than disappointment! By our sin, we have hurt and turned away from the One who has loved us the most and done the most for us! 

Thus, godly grief leads to repentance. We are motivated, not by disappointment in ourselves, which can never lead to lasting repentance, but by love. When we dwell on the love of God Who has given all for us, our new hearts and our new nature desires to fall in line with His will, to agree with Him that our actions were wrong and to covenant with Him to change by His grace, by the power of His Holy Spirit Who is working within us! 

Godly grief is earnest, not wishy washy or emotionally unstable. It sees it’s goal and it’s prize and strives toward that. Godly grief longs for the heart of God, to walk in obedience to Him, to cherish Him and do what He has said is good, not to please Him, but because He is already pleased with us and loves us enough to tell us what is right and what is wrong.