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Leviticus we pray that uh again that you would help us to understand the purpose of what we're reading and how that information as Paul says we know it is God breathed help us to understand how
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it is useful how is how it is instructive how it can uh guide us into all good things for we ask these things in Jesus name amen
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look at the uh purpose of the priesthood and again what I'm what I'm trying to do here in in um these
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particular uh lectures on the mechanisms as it were the law of the offerings in Leviticus chapter 6 and seven is to try
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to come to an understanding of what this means in its own context and then what it means in ours and as I've said before we're we're
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generally operating against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation and the uh conclusion certainly of Martin Luther but so many other Protestant writers that that
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everything we read in the Old Testament is somehow a prefiguring of Christ and that somehow the the sacrifices that we're studying they have to have some fulfillment in Christ and again I I
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don't know if you've had the same experience but when I have read commentaries that try to uh show the Messianic fulfillment of for example the
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wave or the heave offering I just don't follow them I I think it's special pleading I think they've they've started most
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commentators start with their conclusion and that is this somehow prefigures Christ and then if they try to work backward to show how this somehow
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prefigured Christ and my experience is I think it's if if it does we just don't know how but I don't think that that's necessarily the right hermeneutic now
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certainly all of divine revelation points toward Jesus Christ but does it do it in every particular aspect and I don't think that's the case
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I think there are other lessons being taught there concerning the Holiness of God the need for a mediator but the problem with that mediator not being
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holy and so when we deal with the Torah of the offering we're not really I mean we can say in a broad sense that Jesus fulfilled all of these but that's
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because he was the perfect both sacrifice and priest not because he somehow fulfilled the grain offering and not not just the grain offering but the the fine flour and the
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baked and the roasted and you know all the different offerings um I mean are we in agreement that it's kind of hard to see the link between each one of them and Jesus okay uh and so when that link
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when you see someone trying to make that link what you're witnessing is allegorizing you're you're witnessing an allegorizing hermeneutic and of course origin in the
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second century was kind of the patron saint of allegorization but we you're witnessing an attempt to derive a spiritual meaning of a certain type and
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that is the work the finished work of Jesus Christ from an Old Testament ritual that perhaps had a whole lot more to do with the insufficiency of the
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priesthood than the Fulfillment of the priesthood in Jesus Christ does that make sense so it does show us a lot it shows us as we started out that what
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we're dealing with here fundamentally is the dwelling of a holy God in the midst of an Unholy people and vice versa so the Tabernacle is the dwelling of God on
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earth now when we understand that and then we go to John 1 and we read that Jesus tabernacled Among Us that has a different light okay it's not that he became flesh and dwelt Among Us there's
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a perfectly good for for word for that in fact the word that John uses is not actually a word it's making a verb out of a noun okay the word the verb or the
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noun is Tabernacle and he makes a verb out of it so that there's he obviously is um is wanting us to think along the line of the Tabernacle even more so than
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the temple and really the Tabernacle is I hate to say this it's more important than Solomon's than Solomon's Temple uh that had a that had a meaning
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but I would I would submit that that meaning was almost entirely enom encompassed by the davidic dynasty that it it was actually a meaning of failure right if you're going
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to look at it as a dispensation the dispensation of the davidic dynasty of of Israel was first the split under rabam and then just apostasy down the down the centuries to Ultimate
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Destruction it does also point to the Fulfillment of that one
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right s yeah it it it absolutely fulfills the promise and in fact it's in the time of Solomon that we read that the domain of David's house stretched from the river Euphrates to the river of
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Egypt which is exactly the parameters of the promise given to Abraham but that's what I mean by it's kind of encompassed by the davidic chronologically it's it's kind of the davidic Fulfillment of the
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promise of the land or at least the sarenity because they didn't actually dwell in much of that land but he they they were vassals to the davidic throne
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but I what I'm saying is of the two the two the Tabernacle is far more prefigurative of the true Temple uh the Temple of the Church
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of Jesus's body which is why I think John uses the word he tabernacled he didn't say templed Among Us and and when you read Hebrews uh much of what Hebrews
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is talking about is not the temple it's the Tabernacle now he does talk about the current priesthood and how it's going to be obsolete now that's the current Temple at that time but when he's talking about Moses and he's
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talking about the priesthood and all of that he's really referring to Leviticus and he's referring to the Tabernacle so the idea of the Tabernacle is in itself a concept and these particular passages
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in Leviticus 6 and 7 um Each of which are um given their own heading this is the law for the burnt
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offering chapter 6 ver9 um chapter 6 verse 25 this is the law of the sin offering I missed one verse 14
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this is the law of the grain offering of chapter 7:1 this is the law of the guilt offering and then uh chapter 7 um where are we oh verse 11 now is this
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is the law of the sacrifice of Peace offerings so each of those has a heading this is the Torah of this particular
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however none of those sections are exhaustive as far as the procedure how the priests were supposed to do it none of them are sufficient for us to do duplicate what they
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did and there are other passages in Exodus and numbers that give a little bit more light on some of these particular offerings that details that are not in Leviticus so I think what we're dealing
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with here is when we look at the T first of all it's it's it is the word instruction it's not really the word law per se it it just it literally means
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instruction but it's not exhaustive instruction so it's they're almost like they're faced with the same thing we are with the regulative principle and that is we we're told what to do but we're not told exactly how to do it and we put
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it all together but the the Jews knew this because they had their own Rabbi interpretations over the centuries of how exactly this or that is supposed to
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be done if it had been explicitly written in the scriptures they could have just said no thus says the Lord we do it this way so that means we have to rethink what we're dealing with here
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we're we're not not dealing with a manual of operation for the priests and as we read these different sections in in and of themselves we find
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that each one of them has a particular emphasis about something that is actually part of the others as well so
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for example when we looked at the law of the burnt offering we saw that it was all about the fire keeping the fire perpetually burning upon the altar
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which involves the taking up and taking out of the ashes and as I mentioned that that week that actual that section is actually in
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a chastic parallel chastic parallel construction the priest changes his he has his Priestly vestments on he takes up the ashes he puts them beside the
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altar then in reverse order he takes off his clothing and puts on his common clothing takes out the ashes and deposits them in
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a clean place so it's a chastic structure you think why are you spending so much time talking about the ashes and frankly I don't know except
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that it was a very important ritual in the life the daily life of the ironic priesthood because as we know anybody who has had a wood stove if you don't
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get rid of the ashes the fire's going to go out the ashes will smother the fire so morning and evening they're they're cleaning out the altar why because as
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verse 13 says it shall not go out it shall burn shall burn perpetually so the emphasis and it makes sense that the burnt offering would focus on the fire because the burnt
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offering is the one offering of all of them that is entirely emulated on the altar it there's nothing for the priest to eat in terms of the burnt offering so
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okay it makes sense let's talk about the fire and how it's be perpetual and how important it is but certainly the fire plays a part in all the other offerings does it does it not all of them have the fire that is
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the common element as as Abe mentioned it is as I mentioned the essential element but it is the common element in every one of the offerings and yet the other laws of the offerings don't really
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talk about the fire they talk about something else so we come to the law of the grain the grain offering and um this is
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also inserted here in chapter 6: 19 is the consecration offering which we haven't read about in the earlier chapters and that makes sense because
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the earlier chapters were all about the offerings that the Israelites brought to the Tabernacle well the consecration is for Aaron and his sons only and it's a grain
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offering which is rather interesting because we tend to think of the grain offering as as of less importance than the animal the animal sacrifices but the reality of the text
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not only here but in Exodus and in numbers is that the grain offering is called Most called Most Holy okay and and it is treated with as
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much dignity and as much importance as the burnt the burnt offering so again we have these I think we have these uh General presuppositions
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um that you know for example we come into this thinking that that it's the blood it's the blood it's the blood and then we read a number of offerings that don't have blood and yet they bring
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atonement okay so that means well okay got to maybe think a little broader than we thought before the the burnt offering is always and I I've said this it's it's
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like the granddaddy of the offerings everything begins and ends with a burnt offering every day in the Tabernacle so no doubt that the burnt offering is of supreme importance but
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then we tend to minimize the other offerings and and honestly as we're progressing through here I think one of the reasons that Moses left the peace offering to end to the
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end is that that's the one that really captures the heart and the soul of this whole parable of Leviticus is the peace offering because that is what God
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desires is fellowship with his people people peace between him and his people so all of these others we might say are a are a means to an
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end and that's not to to diminish their importance it's just try to put focus on what is happening here what is this just a people appeasing their deity and in
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the ancient world that is that is almost entirely what the sacrificial system was all about whether it was meat whether whether it was grain whether it was wine it it it did not it did not suit really
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the relationship between the people and their God it suited the needs of the people so if you were if you were giving a offering for the Harvest you would bring grain you know so if you were
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bringing an offering for fertility or for longevity you would bring an animal a young you know it had more to do with the nature of the
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appeasement or the the nature of the petition and that's what you brought uh we they're not appeasing God this is all from God I mean even as
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we see in Leviticus 17:1 God says the blood I have given you upon the altar it's not like the people came up with this God gave it to them
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this is entirely gracious and as we look at some of these offerings we realize um at no point were these people worthy to come into the presence of
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Yahweh at no point were these purified cleansed in and of themselves let me make inherently righteous right can do
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we all agree with that even after the sacrifices the writer of Hebrews says they were they were not capable of cleansing the conscience from sin right so even after the sacrifice the man was
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no more morally pure than before and so there's a big gap even in the uh the tent of meeting that keeps
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out Israel and then the veil of the Holy place and the veil of the most holy place that keeps out most of the Levites you know there's there's a bigger Gap than just the physical distance between
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the entrance to the tent and the altar of the bronze Altar and between that and the tent the in tent you know there there's a there's a Chasm of Holiness versus
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unholiness and what they were doing here was completely ineffective in in closing that Gap but for the grace of God God is the
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one who closes the Gap not man okay so we have to realize that first of all these these things were never salvific the idea of returning to these
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is ludicrous you know the dispensational idea that in the Millennium this will all come back and that is absolutely ridiculous if not Blasphemous because these were never
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salvific Paul makes that clear that if life could come from the law then Christ died in vain so when we read these things we need to not fall
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back into that a mentality that Judaism was a Works religion no it wasn't God gave them the blood on the altar God condescended to let his presence dwell
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in their midst it was it was never their good works that brought God there isn't one ofs of that esy that the offerings
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will be offered but they'll be Memorial they'll be Memorial yeah and why it almost undercuts it seems to me and I'm curious about think about this
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undercuts of what was being can say they were abely not if they did not do these they would die right exactly obedience and I was about to go there if they did not do these
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things they would perish or they would be rejected ejected from the land so The Obedience was their part as it were but
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it wasn't this or that animal because you know if you didn't have enough money for a a goat you could bring a turtle dove you know there's so much flexibility and if you couldn't for a turtle dove you could bring grain or
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flour so um the idea that that these sacrifices are going to be memorial memorial of memorial of what what are you
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memorializing okay again that that presupposes that these sacrifice somehow have a direct connection to Jesus and I'm submitting that they have
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more of a connection to Aaron than to Jesus and by Aaron I mean his whole family representing the entire nation representing the entire world and that is as Solomon says in his dedication
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there is no one who doesn't sin okay God why are you condescending you who inhabit the heavens will you dwell in a house made by man
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right right right we make distinctions and we make distinctions of what we do so the veneration versus worship we don't worship Mary we venerate her you that kind of stuff um we also make distinctions among people and we and
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those distinctions frequently come from what we're what we're reading you know that we read 2 Timothy 3:16 and then we go back to the Old Testament and we come up with the way
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that it is instructive and we often do it wrong and I think one of the main re ways that we've done this wrong and we're going to talk about this as we go through different Focus with this idea
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from now the only thing we can find in the New Testament and you can correct me if I'm wrong I didn't do an exhaustive search but you know over the Decades of reading I we are a holy priesthood I mean they're quotes from the Old
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Testament but they're applied to all believers we don't see any any of the Apostles first of all claiming that for
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themselves and we don't see them setting up any type of priesthood in the churches that they plant and yet very early on a priesthood
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develops within the early church certainly by the third Century okay so that's relatively early where does this come from um we we certainly
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Catholic but protestantism is not immune to either a an explicit priesthood or an implicit one right so yes Roman Catholicism
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Protestant churches you'll have priests in the Anglican Church um I don't know whether the Lutheran Church has priests do they have priests Mark
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priests Mark uh they have other like rectors and um yeah so you have some you have some churches that do have priests but then if you don't have an explicit
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for example Anglican you have an pastor okay now you say oh that's not a priest
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well if he's not a priest then why the clothing okay and and this is something that is endemic from the Reformation on
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is the idea that the man who gets up into the pulpit should be wearing
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garments why have you ever thought about that I don't know if you've ever attended a church that you know the the if you've attended a Presbyterian Church of any of any conservative nature you're going to
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to atin about what they were doing what they were doing and that's that's where I'm headed what what are we doing that's the question that needs to be asked is okay it does make a distinction that's the point of it you don't wear these out
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at Target you know you're not walking around in your clerical robes so what are you saying when you get up on the D and you stand behind the pulpit and you
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have the word of God and you're wearing a distinctive garment where do we find distinctive garments in the priesthood and in fact
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when we say that this is a distinctive garment we're also saying that this is a
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Space because I don't go down into the well I guess some do but you know I I go and I change and I come back out like the priests did so it's not just the Garment garment it's the
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distinctiveness of that garment and the space in which it is worn becomes a holy place okay see where we're headed here
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we're we're actually going back into the ironic priesthood within our own Protestant framework is it also intercessory it's not only intercessory
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it's mediatorial okay so that if you're in a church for example and the sermon is over and the pastor is giving the benediction and he goes like
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this he's standing in the place of God he's blessing okay it's it's mediatorial so and many of them will do the ironic blessing in numbers six
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wherever that is um pardon me that makes me feel better uh okay um so vestments were early on a controversy
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within the Protestant Reformation one of the most famous incidences was in the um in the 16th century during the time of of Luther and Calvin um during the time
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of Edward I 6 who was the young king of England uh who who took uh on his own behalf and and certainly his Regents took the Anglican Church in a reformed
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Direction certainly away from Roman Catholicism his older sister Mary who would succeed him would try to bring it back and a bishop Bishop of um of
25:35
Gloucester by the name of John Hooper he was a bishop he was made Bishop under Edward I 6 because his theology was definitely reformed he was
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he was um opposed to Roman Catholicism he was also opposed to the vestments and he initially refused to
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wear clerical gar and that got him into a lot of trouble even with Edward V and his his um regions because the
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church was in England highly politicized and the the Bishops were to be
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Representatives as much of the king as of the of the Lord to wear common garments in the Pulpit was a a defamation in the in the
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opinion of most of the theologians it was a defamation of the dignity once again the Dignity of the pulpit and of the office of Bishop now the the bishop
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in the Anglican Church is is an unbiblical extension of authority to a single person over multiple churches so
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all already but that's been going on for um you know 1,200 years at this point where the Bishops are becoming um major Lords within the church okay they don't
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have the pope anymore they have the king and the Bishops report to the king so Hooper says no I'm not going to wear them well interestingly um he sought support from the Continental reformers
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Calvin Boer um especially those two storg and and Geneva and they wrote back and said it's not a big deal wear the garments okay
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don't make waves because we're it's a very fledgling Reformation in England right now right so let's not make waves that might bring the Wrath of the king down
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upon us and and and shove England back into the bosom of Rome just just wear the vestments it's not a big deal and that really was their attitude it's not a big deal it's not an
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issue that's because it was not an issue for them to be viewed themselves as mediatorial intercessors actually functionally
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priests okay so it it was you know not a big issue but but I think the question is is that really true what whenever we do something for
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example when we take the title Reverend what are we saying what is Reverend what does that word mean to be it means it means
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revered one right so unless your name is Paul you're not revered okay get on your horse and ride out of here all right
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because you know what are you saying when you take that term Reverend is that you as a person are distinct from the
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rest of the congregation some congregations of course the anti Baptist would go so far as to say brother sister okay um I think that's kind a little bit affectation we
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have names have names you so let's just use our names I I I I don't know I don't it's okay someone wants to say brother Chuck I was I'm not offended by that but I I I'm a cynic and
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I tend to find that as an affectation myself but um if you if you love it then love it but you know forgive me for not um but it's a whole lot better than reverend in and certainly over the years
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there have been I've gotten mail um you know delivered to the Rev Charles Hartman I don't know what my RPMs are but rev okay put a couple extra V's on
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there when I'm feeling good you or Reverend um and and I've had occasion especially within the context of the Presbyterian Seminary um to to ask
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people not to call me that you know to not address the mail that way um because that's not it's it's not Jesus say call call no man father okay that that is a
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term of of of ultimate respect to call someone father AB pointed out Sunday after the sermon that the word ABA in in the Middle East is not necessarily your biological father you know it's your
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address to a man whom you respect a man of Honor um and and Jesus says don't don't do that with any other man and yet somehow you know doesn't it bother you
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that somehow we've Incorporated these things without critique into Evangelical Christianity and and there are men in the pulpits who who not only uh they
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they both demand and defend the clerical garments and the clerical title I think that's an indication of a serious problem within the church and
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the problem is a return to priesthood a desire to have that that place within and so I think it's very important that we go back and try to understand what
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was the priesthood all about you know if we're going to take the title either implicitly or explicitly do we really understand what we're getting ourselves
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into okay and and I would say the answer is no we probably don't because we just view the priests as those who offered sacrifices to
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God and now we offer the sacrifice of the word to God and to his people and so therefore we are you know the modern priesthood but um JH Curts has a has a
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good he has an excellent book cts's 19th century German um wrote a book um basically the worship and sacrifices I can't remember the exact title but he goes through the whole litany um not getting sometimes he gets into the weeds
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uh typical of his time and typical of theological Works he spends most of his time uh disagreeing with all the other contemporaries so you kind of have to leave through why Bower was wrong and
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why old hon was wrong and why Kyle and dich were right or wrong it's like you know okay fine um they fought their battles in print back then you know and and then we get these books um but
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there's a lot of good in it and he summarizes in in his section on the priesthood he summarizes four characteristics that we can derive from actually numbers 15 or well 22 whatever
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passage it's in the notes I can never remember whatever passage that is is God talking to Moses about pulling out Aaron the actual you know passage maybe it's
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characteristics one is that they are chosen by God so election by
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now the writer of Hebrews makes point of this and he says you know he says in
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somewhere actually have the quote I thought well that no man chooses for himself no man takes it upon himself to be a priest but they are chosen by God so the Hebrews kind of Echoes what the
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Old Testament says Aaron didn't volunteer they he was chosen and as I talked about last week um the choosing of Aaron was quite shall we say ironic
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because he was the man who led Israel into one of its Grievous most Grievous sins with the gold calf and in the rinic tradition Aaron Remains the the the the
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really the chief Seducer he doesn't ever come up to Moses in the in the rabic tradition even though he was a high priest uh the stain
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of having participated in that rebellion in that idolatry never left Aaron's Legacy even within Judaism and yet he's made to be the one who will mediate
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between God and his people so he's chosen by God the next one is is
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the mechanism of that mediation for the ironic priesthood was primarily seen on the day of atonement right when they took the blood into the most holy and only the high priest did that that is the the kind of
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the culmination of mediation for the year okay but every other one was mediation only the priest put the sacrifice on the altar only the priests
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sprinkled the blood or poured the blood beside the altar or in the first tent only the priest did that so once the Israelite brought his sacrifice and
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killed it now the priest took over that's mediation okay uh presenting that offering that blood and the fire was the
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function of the priest now in the reverse Direction not so much except to say uh as we read so often in the first chapters his sin
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shall be forgiven or he shall have atonement that's the reverse God's grace but in terms of of God's word that tended to come through the
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prophets who were not of any particular family or family or tribe so in in in and and that makes sense because God is not in need of
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mediation he's perfect it's we got the problem you don't think Jesus Jesus more
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well he he is more than a mediator but he is most certainly a mediator both Paul and the writer of Hebrews makes that clear he's the perfect mediator and in fact he's more than that because he
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actually well it's not different it's not he's not different in what he did the difference is who was doing it and we're going to get into that I I'm reluctant to say he's more
37:35
than a mediator except that he's he's the son of God he's almighty God so in that sense he's more than a mediator but he is absolutely the one mediator between God and man I mean that we read
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that in the Bible okay so that's that's not my opinion he actually delivers this cing yes but he does that because of who he is and this is what the writer of Hebrews is pointing out in chapters 9
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and 10 and 10 and let me see if I can say this quickly or Su summarily when we look at what Jesus did as as the great high priest
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he's still a mediator okay but the reason his mediation works is the very reason the ironic mediation
38:22
didn't because Jesus was equal to both Aaron was only equal to The Human Side okay a mediator Paul makes this point a mediator must be both this this is where we can we can
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use the scripture to show that the Redeemer had to be both God and man because he had to be able to put his hand on man made in in in our likeness
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Hebrews 2 because the children partook of Flesh and Blood okay so he partakes of Flesh and Blood yet without sin but he is still Eternal
38:55
God so when we look look at the mediation of the priesthood we see its failures and that's again what the writer of Hebrews is pointing out it has to be done over and over every day and they're succeeded
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by another in death right so it's not only a daily daily daily yearly it's a generational thing because not one of them can get it right because while they can put their hand on
39:20
man they can't put their hand on God okay it's God who puts his hand on the priest graciously but the the priest is not a man who can do both and it's
39:33
just screaming all every time it's done it's like no you know that we needed a high priest who did not have to offer up for himself again writer the author of
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Hebrews so when we go back to the parable of Leviticus we're seeing no this is not a specific Messianic prophecy here it says more about Aaron than it
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does about Jesus although it says much about about Jesus because the the the insufficiently sufficiency of the ironic
40:05
priesthood drove the faithful to look for a perfect priest because Eleazar was no better
40:16
than Aaron venas was no better than Eleazar zok was no better than any of they were all Fallen they were all unclean they were all Sinners and so
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none of them could put their hand on God's shoulder while they had their hand on the shoulder of Israel so while they are mediatorial and this gets to the point why would we ever want as a pastor
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to pretend to do that okay so that you know your questions are getting to the heart of the priesthood and that is the one who stands in stands in between I'm like no thank you I have no
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desire I don't think Mark does either to stand in between anybody and God that's you know the the the um the idea of a Christian priest priesthood is is
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really an really an Abomination okay but I appreciate that comment because comment because um there is a definite insufficiency
41:13
that is apparent in the ironic priesthood and it should have been apparent to anyone who had ears to hear even under the old old Covenant okay uh
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so the the Third is that they were holy or literally Holiness to Jehovah and we're going to talk about that more
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next actually hopefully we'll get to it this evening um but this idea of holy and that some sacrifices were holy and others were most holy we we have almost
41:49
entirely moralized the word holy and consider it as a description of behavior rather rather than of status biblically that is almost
42:04
entirely incorrect almost incorrect almost entirely now that is not to say that we have the right to be Unholy and it is not to say that to be
42:14
declared holy to be set apart does not have the intended goal of moral Purity moral Purity does but that moral Purity that we put
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under the word sanctification which derives from the word holy is really more under the word transformation or
42:37
transformation or metamorphosis so we're going to get into this Lord willing when we returned by the way we're not meeting next week because I have oral surgery on Wednesday and the doctor thought it would be a good idea that I not uh teach for an hour and a half on Thursday evening
42:48
after the oral surgery so I appreciate your prayers um I have two extractions and a bone graft
43:04
happens um all right so the other one then the kind of all of these then come down to the fourth one and that is they were to
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approach God they were chosen they were taken as a possession so that they had no inheritance and they were declared to be
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holy they were consecrated so that they might approach God now the the question to ask then when you're considering a Christian
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priesthood is priesthood is that how do these three apply to one particular cast
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within the within the church okay all right do these
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church and coordinately is that cast thereby the only ones allowed to do that this is what priesthood means okay it is clear that God chose
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Levi and then Aaron out of out of Israel and he owned them for his own possession and they alone because of
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that election because of that consecration they alone were allowed to approach Jehovah that is what priesthood means
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and therefore anyone who adopts any form of the priesthood is claiming exclusive approach to Jehovah but what does Hebrews
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say that because we have such a great high priest we may boldly approach the throne of grace right Hebrews 4:16 the priesthood is a Flatout denial
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of the universality of the priesthood among all believers it's a denial that everyone every believer has been chosen by Jehovah every believer is owned by
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Jehovah every believer has been consecrated and declared a saint and therefore every therefore every believer May freely approach
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God okay so be careful I mean you know you may like the programs you may like the the preaching whatever but you know at the at the heart of any church any church that claims a separate
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cast within their congregation within their denomination who are either denominated or viewed as priests either either by their vestments their titles whatever it
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may be that's what's going on and and very rare is the man who can be in that situation and not grow
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prideful okay so it's it's it Calvin was wrong Boer was wrong it did matter it mattered a lot and because
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Hooper caved didn't do him a whole lot of good unfortunately Edward the the 6 died I think at I think he was in there for like eight years nine age 9 to 17
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something like that okay died he was never very healthy Mary comes in you know Mary Bloody Mary okay right she came in bringing tomato juice uh only it
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wasn't tomato juice it was the blood of the Saints and John Hooper was one who was martyred by Queen Mary so it didn't do him any good compromising
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his stand on the vestments and now the Anglican Church is all dled up in their vestments and have been for the past 500 years okay I just thinking that it's
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been kind of confusing to [Music] meest you meest you know and I guess you always think of
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PRI doing PRI doing things I have not thought of it as being being a PRI just mean that I can go directly to God right on behalf of others and myself and yeah but it's it's
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um on behalf of others and on behalf of myself but we'll see and we I'll reiterate this in a couple weeks when we talk about it in the text the priest was not allowed to eat
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of the offering made for the priest that was another very powerful reminder that if you're bringing a sin offering for yourself it is completely
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burned on the altar you're not allowed to have the priest portion there is no priest portion you can have the priest portion of the others but not yours so so there's you know there's little
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things in there that say oh wow you know and we're actually moving right into that in terms of the grain offering in this section of Leviticus 6 but you know
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this is the point out just you know think about what a priest is and this is true of all ancient religions this is not just Judaism okay you did not even
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in Rome you did you you might have been elected to be ponteix Maximus or chosen by election to be but you were elected by the people to be one of the priests
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okay and that was only for a year or two years or whatever um but but it was still that was the person that went into the temple no one else did in fact who was
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it the oh the the ish young man who caused so much trouble in Cicero's time can't remember his name but he went in I think he went into the Vestal virgins yeah I
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mean he just decided to go on in because he was a big name and now that didn't work and it didn't work for usza to try to stabilize the ark either did it it's like God is not
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kidding usza was not a levite and he was certainly not of the family of Aaron and he had no business being anywhere near that Ark and he paid for it so did David
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so you know it's it's kind of all through the scripture that this this is not an office that was up forbid and this was one of the reasons as I mentioned before why the ases gave up on
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the temple and many of them retired to the to the Dead Sea area where we eventually find their Scrolls okay but the reason was that the the priests the
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the high priesthood was essentially a um uh a patronage of the Roman Emperor or the Roman Governor had nothing to do with a family of Aaron or or any
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anything of this it was now bought and sold to the highest bidder and there were assassinations and you know this this meant something um to God
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Josiah throughout throughout history yes it does yeah um and frankly uh it it's a good thing that it's the 21st century because I don't think the current pope would have lasted three weeks in the high Middle Ages you know
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or the you know I don't think in the early modern period he would even he would he would you know he would have just died in his sleep and many of them did in fact there was so recent as the
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early 1980s uh we all remember John Paul II but there there was actually a Pope John Paul the first uh right before him who who died like within three months and
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back then was a lot of discussion about wow what what happened okay stuff goes on in the Vatican that is that is worthy of of um uh film
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Noir yeah okay so we turn to the grain offering and there's so much to be said about the grain offering and I I want to focus on just a couple of of aspects of
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the grain offering U because first of all what we're dealing with
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here is table fellowship with fellowship with Yahweh the meals of the grain offering and the consecration offering which actually was not to be eaten it was to be completely
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be completely burned but the reason they're put together is because the grain offering was the primary food it was the bread of the priesthood and it was to be eaten as we
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read in the text it was to be eaten in a holy place now if we consider the um the
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okay there's the main entrance to what was known as the tent of meeting now later on in the temple there will be courts out around all of this the court of the women Court
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of the of the Gentiles okay but an Israelite male so this would be the court of men outside the tent the women were not allowed to
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male could go that far and no further because beyond that you would have what is what the writer of Hebrews calls the
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tent and that tent had two Chambers the outer tent and the inner the inner tent and the openings each had a
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veil now there was also the Basin the labor where the priests would ceremonially wash okay and then of course here we have the table of showbread the the uh lamp stand and the altar of incense and then of course the
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altar I'm sorry the The Mercy Seat the ark would be in the Holy so you're all familiar with that well what the writer of Hebrews is saying in terms of the meal is that this meal was to be eaten
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by the priests the male ironic family and it was to be eaten in a holy place they didn't take it home there was no tog go bag okay um and so
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times and including the um Temple of Solomon the priests would take their meals in the court of the altar they would eat by themselves because they were eating
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with God okay and that I mentioned it last week but the um the concept of the fire is that of God eating what was
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offered to offered to him and his eating is a sign of table Fellowship so when Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 talks about the professing believer
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who is living in unrepentant sin he says don't even eat with such a one okay that that culture I think still is that way Abe you can correct me if
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I'm wrong but the meal is is is a is is important it's not just food for the body it's Fellowship for the soul and to
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not eat is to basically declare yourself an enemy of your host you know you would not eat a meal brought by your uh
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enemy okay so um and fact you know I I've I've heard some anecdotes where if you find out that what you're eating was actually provided by your enemy spit it
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out because that that would be that would CLA that would Proclaim peace if you took a meal together okay and so when God is eating with the priests this
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has significance not only for Aaron and his family but for all of Israel that God is at peace with those who stand between him and his people and therefore
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that's why the peace offering are so important it's really
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fting ins of the priesthood and Israel falling short of their endowment as a as a kingdom of priests how how this image is reflecting what happened at that mountain where sacrifices were prepared
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at the foot of the mountain and the 70 elders went upat with God yep very pictures yeah we really our culture we really don't understand the concept of table fellowship and yet it's
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a it's a very heart at the heart of the controversy that Paul recounts in Galatians when Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles that that was a
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massive statement that Peter was making you know as to the power and efficacy of the gospel and that's why Paul is saying you know this is all about the gospel it's not about the meal because the meal
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we have the meal because of the Gospel you know we there's no one excluded from the table now which again argues against this priesthood that there's no one there's no one in Christ who can be
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denied a seat at the table again that's why what the Corinthians were doing in First Corinthians 11 that's why it was so horrible it wasn't because some people were going home
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hungry or some people were getting drunk it was because distinctions were being made in terms of table Fellowship which meant there were distinctions being made among the children of God and that was
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totally unacceptable to Paul and should be to us okay so but that's what's happening especially with this grain offering is it is most holy and it must
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be eaten in a holy place so those little distinctive comments about a sacrifice are often the the main point in the whole per pericope okay we can get
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bogged down in the weeds and we think we're reading the same thing over over and over again but once again listen for that little difference where he starts out by saying it is most holy but then there's another feature um
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that I that I find to be um well let me read I I want to read that quote I hadn't read it yet uh from the rabbis um where is
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where is that yeah this is a this is a quote um that one that a Jewish uh Jonathan grman of the uh University of the Hebrew University um he says the the rabbi
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writings have this quote the Torah talks about two kinds of eating the person eating and the altar eating okay so the even within the Rabin
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writings and the understanding of of the um the sacrifices they understood that the altar was actually God's
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actually God's Meal which will help us to understand why why certain sa offerings had to be completely consumed because of their very nature in the in the atoning
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hierarchy they could not be shared God was accepting the nation through the high priest by consuming the entire burnt offering and that allowed
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him then to partake and fellowship at the table with the priests by taking only a handful of the flour while the rest was made into bread and consumed by
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the priests in the Holy place okay so in that in the H had to be in a holy place that's a very significant but there's another phrase that may be rendered one
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way in in your in your Bible um that is misleading it is actually rendered in that misleading way um no it's it's correct in The New American Standard the
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new King new King James has it I think wrong Verse 18 chapter
