They laid their hands

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Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering. And he killed it…
(Leviticus 8:14-15 ESV)

It must have been a sobering experience to offer a sacrifice – it struck me as I read this that after all of the warnings about touching unclean things in the previous chapters there is an emphasis that touching has to do with transferring.  Then the drama of a person walking up to an animal, touching it – and then the animal dying, immediately, right in front of them.

This is the seriousness of sin.  It deserves death.  Immediately.  And the grace of God, that he should not demand our life at the moment of transgression.

 

The Priest and the People

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Ever since listening to Mike Reeves interview Ron Frost I’ve just been reading my Bible when I want to, for as long as I want to.  And it’s been brilliant.

I finished reading all the way through a little while ago and am now in Leviticus and loving it.  I’m getting so much out of it second time through and can’t wait until round 3 etc.

So I’m going to start posting things here to share and keep track of thoughts & ideas, things I notice, as I go along.

 

It just so happens that a few days before Easter I was reading through Leviticus 4 with Ali and it struck me that both the priest, and the people of Israel, have to offer the same sacrifice if they sin unintentionally.  This sacrifice is different to if an individual sins in the community of Israel.

Coming back to look at the passage this morning, the link is even clearer:

“If it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the LORD for a sin offering.”
(Leviticus 4:3 ESV) (Italics mine)

It’s all about Jesus?

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We had a guest preacher at church on Sunday and in the evening he preached from Psalm 23.  It was a good sermon, he took us through the passage and clearly explained the meaning of the text.  He helped us to understand the psalm in the context of it’s author and at the end he drew us to see that ultimately David is talking about Jesus.

But I got bored (which also says something about me) and, having read through Colossians a little bit in preparation for June I couldn’t help but come away thinking that, since ALL of Psalm 23 is about Jesus, that the whole sermon should have been about Jesus too.

I wished that the preacher had shown me how Jesus had been a shepherd, how he had led people to living water, how he had fed them with manna that would never run out.  I wished he had been along the right path before me so that I might know the way to take.  I wished that he had shown me Jesus triumphant over evil so that I might not fear it and how he always guides and rebukes his disciples in a way that is for their best.

Partly I’m left questioning how much of my working I need to show when I preach.  Do I need to show any of it?  What happens if I only show people how to study the passage for themselves?  How to read through a passage and understand it.  Mostly, I’m left wondering how on earth I’m going to teach a bunch of young people Colossians faithfully and not bore them, but leave them in absolute wonder of Jesus, the Saviour, who is Supreme.

And the answer is that I’m not going to.  It’ll be the Holy Spirit that does.  So I suppose I’d better get on my knees.

 

Conference

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My wife and I are going to be looking after the young people at a conference in June and I’ve decided to speak on Colossians.  At the moment that means I have six talks to write and lots of thinking and praying to do so I’ve started up the blog again as somewhere to store my thoughts (and perhaps prayers too).