It is so fun and interesting to read the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Joshua. People who found themselves in less than desirable circumstances but chose to listen to and obey God. They are people of faith and that's why they ended up in the Bible. But they weren't perfect and that's also why they ended up in the Bible. So we can relate but be inspired to live obedient to the call of God even if we have no idea why he would call us to do such crazy things. Because of these heroes of faith, we see what Gods plan was for their lives and we can trust that He has great things in store for us also.
Then I got to Leviticus. It can be a struggle to get through the next three chapters. It seems that the laws about unclean things and sacrificial offerings don't have much to do with us. Yet, as I read, I believe it does.
Then I got to a passage which I think is the key:
"you shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgements, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you: for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. And 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 20:22-23, 26.
He doesn't give a lot of rules just because. It's because all of the sleeping around, all of the worshipping of idols(which we still have, they are just called things like entertainment, money, success, etc), all of the injustice and selfishness are ways of the people who God abhors! That's about as bad as it can get. He calls them to be holy--different. How will anyone know that they follow Him if they do the same exact things as the people who He abhors?
But they weren't the only ones from whom God expected the first fruits and best of what they had. Whom He expected to be set apart and holy like Him. That stands for us too:
"So the scribe said to Him, 'well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love ones neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.'" Mark 12:32-33
So, today we don't offer sacrifices the same way, but we do live sacrificially by denying ourselves a complacent life, the 'right' to always be right, to trample on others, to be selfish, to practice immorality., etc. because if we really do love God with our whole hearts we will obey the commands that he gives and we will seek to be holy like Him.
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