Author: Bob Bronkema

These chapters in Hebrews contain the very meat of what we believe in regards to the atonement. What is the atonement?, you say. The atonement is what we believe in regards to why Jesus had to die for us. Here in Hebrews is calls us back to the sacrifices that were necessary in order to fulfill the law. You know, the law that we have been reading that contains so many do nots. The priest in the Old Testament, Hebrews remind us, is not capable of forgiving once and for all, but has to continuously provide forgiveness for every sin every single time.

Not so with Jesus. Because Jesus is the Son of God his voluntary single sacrifice is sufficient once and for all because the blood that he shed on the cross was sufficient for a sacrifice that needed to be done once and for all. The necessary sacrifice was found in Jesus himself and this sacrifice is able to remove our sin for all times. There is no continual sacrifice that was needed because of the blood of Jesus like there used to have to be continual sacrifices in the Old Testament. There is no clearer explanation as to why we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. These are incredibly powerful and meaningful chapters or us understanding our status before God. We are forgiven, period. There is no need of continual and yearly or periodic forgiveness.

So why would we waste our time in looking at a whole variety of Scriptures that deal with leprosy, and then deal with discharges, and then deal with the role of Aaron and his sons? What good is that to us today? I always take joy and comfort in knowing that the detail in which God has worked in the past to ensure our salvation, remains true today. The last chapter in Leviticus deals with the “scapegoat”, who is placed in the midst of the people of Israel and upon whom is all the sin of Israel cast. That goat is then cast out of the camp and so the sins of the people of Israel are forgiven. No longer do the sins reside upon the people but rather God has found a way to wash the sins of the people clean. That was then, this is now.

In Hebrews we read that the law has been rendered obsolete, at least that is the word used in my translation. Jesus said something similar when he said that he came not to eliminate the law, but to fulfill it. The fact that the law has become obsolete does not eliminate it, but it does place it in a very specific role which is secondary to the law of loving God and loving neighbor which Jesus has brought. As the author of Hebrews once again states, Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry. That is a great way to understand the role that Jesus played as not only Savior and the one who provides complete forgiveness, but he also sets a path before us of a more excellent ministry.

We find the ordination and consecration of Aaron and then immediately following the death by fire of two of his children. You see once they see their dad become almost without equal, they think that they are able to do anything that they want. But instead God says no, you have to obey my commandments and do things the way that I have told you to do them. They are not children, they are adults, but they also think that they have free reign because of the position of their father. A series of laws follows in Leviticus.

In Hebrews you have a verse that is a source of much debate and controversy and you can find that in Hebrews 6:4 that states that it is impossible to restore to repentance one who has already believed but then fallen away. The debate comes with the question of “once saved always saved.” That statement is one in which I fully believe, even as people try to parse away this concept with questions as to whether that someone actually ever fully believed or not. Allowing God to be Lord over all things, including salvation, removes any certainty in us anytime that we speak about salvation, especially when we are speaking about leaving people out of salvation. God is the Lord of all things including who just might be in the Kingdom with Him. We don’t get to decide that, for better or worse.

In Leviticus we have the instructions on how the priests are to make the sacrifices happen that are presented by the people because of their sin. It then moves into a 7 day period of ordination and how the priest is to be ordained to begin all of this. In Hebrews we have some of the most consequential verses of this book of the Bible. I want you to look at 4:12-13 where we see that the Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword. That is certainly one aspect of our understanding of God’s word that we hang onto and that we consider to be crucial in our faith and in our walk with the Lord. While we may be able to deceive people and that deception may never be found out, we cannot deceive the Word of God which will eventually, maybe not in this life time, but eventually, will come to light. As a result we cannot trust that all things will come to light during our time on this earth, but eventually. Hopefully that will be enough to make a change and redirect the lives of people on this earth.

In a similar fashion look at 4:14-16 where we have our favorite verse that Jesus lived through and went through everything that we went through, but with the all important caveat of not sinning, and so as a result we have one with whom we can not only relate but know that he knows us intimately and completely. The author says that as a result of this quality of Jesus was can approach the throne with boldness, we can approach God without fear, but also be showered with a grace of mercy that far exceed anything that we can give to each other. God is able and we find that clearly because he became one of us. This is a nod back to John 1 where we read that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This concept in John is tied together by these verses.

It is fairly important to understand why these two Scriptures have been brought together, Leviticus and Hebrews. Leviticus might feel like, and for good reason, a check box on our reading and not something that potentially any of us could get a whole lot out of. The primary thing we should understand is that when people sinned, when we sinned, a sacrifice was necessary to make an atonement for our sin. We read about sins that took place without us even realizing it, that sin needed a sacrifice that was offered to the Lord God for our sin. But this would happen in perpetuity unless God Himself came down to us and offered the ultimate sacrifice, that was once and for all, for all of our sins.

We read in Hebrews this discussion about angels and how God became one of us for a short time, higher than the angels he was, but made himself lower than the angels. There have been books upon books written about the nature of angels. The literal Greek translation for angel is messenger, and I know that they are talking more here than just the prophets of old who were messengers of God. I know that here this discussion is something other human being which angels seem to be described as. But I don’t understand it. Truly, I don’t understand it and so as a result I don’t tend to get involved in these discussions or feel strongly about it. My take from this passage on angels is that there is some being that is not human and yet also not God, we are not angels, but God has allowed us to be made whole by the sacrifice of his Son Jesus for eternity. How angels fit into this I have no idea and don’t really lose much sleep over it either.

A good place to start today is with the last verses that we read today which remind us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Most of the Psalms, certainly the beginning ones, remind the reader of the time that Israel was in the wilderness and disobeying God and doing their own thing. The sin of the people, and even of Moses at Meribah which is brought up in one of the Psalms, is part of the history of the people even to this day. Scripture reminds us of how God has been faithful even in the midst of our sin, which is what we find with II Peter as well.

Even though this is the second book of Peter, we do find him pointing out that God has been faithful and so as a result we should be faithful as well. There is no expiration date on the faithfulness of the Lord. In fact, there is a Scripture that I often use to remind us of how God has remained faithful and that God’s timing is not like our timing where we hear in II Peter 3 that to the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. Our concept of time is simply our concept, not God’s. That should be comforting.

I did not realize until we finished Exodus that the scene where the Israelites are not allowed to enter the promised land and be led by Moses into the promises land happens in another book of the Bible. I have been waiting and waiting to get to the scene where Moses strikes the rock and God tells Moses definitively that they will not enter until they wander for 40 years to come upon us. It never did because that scene is actually in Deuteronomy 32. So we finish Exodus with the expectation and the continued command by God that the people and Moses with their newly designed tabernacle, are making their way into the promised land. The story continues and one of the most dramatic parts of this story doesn’t take place until another book of the Bible. Exodus is more about the flight from Egypt than it is about the entry into the promised land.

I Peter provides us with some insight into what it was like to be a Christian in the first century after Jesus had died and the church was trying to establish itself. There is a lot of discussion about discipline which is key because when you are an outsider and an outcast you are not going to get very far if you allow things to sluff off or don’t take things very seriously. There is discussion about persecution and how God is present in all of that as well. There is discussion of how we have been chosen not through sacrifice of animals but rather through the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus. There is much to gain from this small book of the Bible.

I have to be honest with all of you and say that during this reading my mind did wander a bit. I imagined what it might have been like to get these types of details for a temporary shelter for the ark of the covenant and the logistics that it took to ensure that everything was in place that needed to be in place in order for God’s commands to be executed. What caught my attention was that at a certain point they were asking for offerings in order to pay the workers for what they were doing and then all of a sudden we read in 36:5 that “the people are bringing much more than enough.” He commanded them to stop bringing in their offerings because they were being too generous. That’s pretty exceptional and something that I feel FPC is able to understand. We have the type of generosity that we would never want to stop or to bring to a halt, but it is quiet extraordinary.

To begin our reading we see that the covenant with Moses and the people is renewed. God is a bit hesitant at first. At first he told Moses and the people to go on ahead and enter into the promised land without him, because if he came alongside of them he would consume them. His anger was still, well, hot. But then eventually we see Moses talk God off the edge and God accompanies Moses and the people of Israel as they begin to make their way to conquer the people who were currently residing in the promised land. That is somewhat problematic but we will get there with Joshua once he starts to enter into the promised land and conquer the people there. At this point the Israelites are not wandering, they have renewed their covenant with the Lord and are making their way into the promised land.

I’m wondering if this was a difficult stretch for you all to get through. We see many, many details of what the tabernacle was supposed to look like and how it was to be built. Remember, the tabernacle was considered the house of God, not the permanent one, that would be the temple and that would come later, but a mobile house of God. You can think about glamping and a really, really nice tent that was designed and built to be moved around as the people of God moved around to make their way to the promised land.

Next we read about the vestments of Aaron and his sons who were the priests of the people, or in the parlance of our day the pastors of the Israelites. The vestments were very important for that day and age and had to be exactly as Scripture said they were to be. Tucked within the commands for the vestments was the ordination ceremony and what had to be done in order to set Aaron and his sons aside to be the priests of the people. There was an actual rite that took place and it wasn’t simply an anointing like what happens with David later on when he becomes king, but there was sacrifice and other actions that took place to ensure that Aaron and his sons were rightly ordained.

All of this was given to Moses while he is up on the mountain with Joshua and a few others with him. Those back down in the base camp were getting restless. We end our reading with what could be one of the most famous scenes in Moses’ life, the creation of the golden calf. I love Aaron’s explanation as to why and how the calf came about. The people were restless, I gathered their gold, I put in the fire, and look at that, a calf came out! The implication was that maybe it was of God because somehow magically, or miraculously a calf was created without even trying. Yeah, that was definitely not of God since after all the few commandments that now exist revolve around the one that states: there is only one God.

Moses is given a whole variety of other laws while Aaron and the other leaders are accompanying him. It is fascinating to see that the leaders of Israel are allowed to go up the mountain with him and are allowed to see his presence and have a meal with him. It is all very casual while at the same time apparently very terrifying. But then Moses once again separates himself to be with the Lord and is with him for forty days and forty nights. We will see that this will become a problem in the next few chapters. Again, it strikes me as incredible that Aaron and those with him are not able to control the people even after they saw the face of the Lord.

Psalm 6 is a great psalm to study to understand what a psalm of lament looks like. It begins with the problem: the author is in need of healing because of an unknown malady that is striking him. He laments his present situation and asks for mercy by God. It seems as if things are continuing to go south until we see in vs.8 a transition from an appeal for mercy to a declaration of deliverance by the Lord. Laments often move from, well, lament to celebration over the fact that God has listened and has delivered. The faithfulness of God is always revealed as constant.