Read the Bible in a Year

 Read the Bible in a Year

 

  LEVITICUS MOMENT – God gave new instructions when it came to what He deemed as appropriate and inappropriate relationships amongst His people. We will compare some of what was allowed before, to what He later no longer permitted amongst the Children of Israel. By providing these guidelines, God was distinguishing their way of living from that of the heathen nations. God instructed the Israelites to no longer have sexual relations with any of their close relatives. God went in-depth as to who was to be considered a close relative so that there would not be any confusion or excuse for disobedience. One of the forbidden relationships involved a son having sexual relations with his father or mother’s daughter, even if she was not born in the same household (Leviticus 18:9). He was also not to have sexual relations with his father’s daughter born to his father’s wife, even if she was not his biological mother (Leviticus 18:11). Remember Abraham and Sarah? 

Abraham had married his half-sister, Sarah, who was the daughter of his father (Genesis 11:29). Therefore, this was no longer permitted amongst the Children of Israel. Another rule was that a man was not to have sexual relations with his daughter-in-law (Leviticus 18:15). Do you recall the story of Judah, Jacob’s son, and his daughter-in-law Tamar? Although Judah was unaware that he had slept with his daughter-in-law, due to her being veiled and thinking that she was a prostitute, this was not to be done amongst the Israelites (Genesis 38). God also made a rule that the men were not permitted to sleep with their wife’s sister as long as the wife was living (Leviticus 18:18). Do you remember the story of Jacob, Leah and Rachel? Jacob married both Leah and her sister, Rachel, after being tricked by their father Laban (Genesis 30:25-43). Even though he was deceived, that type of relationship would no longer be tolerated amongst God’s people. Let’s not forget Lot’s daughters and how they got their father drunk to conceive children by him (Genesis 19:30-38). 

The Lord may not have necessarily endorsed, but permitted certain relationships prior to Him delivering His people out of Egypt, but later, He was transforming them to be a people of holiness and righteousness to set them apart from the rest of the nations. When God calls you by name, there is to be a total change from the inside out. The old is no longer acceptable to come into the new. Therefore, if God expected His people to be set apart then, He expects His children to be set apart now, for we are ambassadors for Christ. Something to ponder…

QUESTION OF THE DAY – God told the children of Israel not to offer their children to be sacrificed to the god Molech. God considered this as profaning His name, which went against the Ten Commandments – thou shall not have no other gods before me; thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. God was letting the children of Israel know that He was totally against child sacrifice of any kind. God even forbade the Children of Israel to eat the blood from any creature because the lifeforce was in the blood. Therefore, when advocates for abortion say that a baby is not a life in the first trimester because there is only a blob of tissue and blood, do they not understand that God has determined “blood” as being life? 

Does the world not understand that every baby that is killed through abortion is a sacrifice unto Satan? Does the church not understand, for those who are silent, the we are guilty of aiding the demons of hell when we do not address such issues in the pulpits? Do we not know that we are our brothers’ keeper and that includes the innocent in the womb? Do we not understand that just as Abel’s blood cried out to God after Cain killed him that the approximately 60 million babies that have been killed in America are crying out to God for justice? Do we not know that God will avenge their blood? Something to ponder…

LEVITICUS MOMENT – God instructed the Israelites to not have homosexual relations amongst them. God found it to be detestable in His sight. He also told them to not practice bestiality because He deemed it as perversion. God did not desire for them to defile themselves in the same manner that the heathens did. If the Israelites lived as their neighboring heathen nations did by defying God, He was going to drive them out of the land that He had given them. God promised to do to them what He had done to the nations that were defiled. God would vomit the land’s residents out due to their sin and rebellion. In modern times, many leftist groups and compromised churches want to say that God does not care about sexual sin and that it’s all about love. What they do not understand is that yes, God is a God of love, but He is also a God of righteousness and holiness. God’s love does not compromise His ordinances but affirms them. 

In man’s attempt to redefine God’s laws of nature, to accommodate their sins, they want to also redefine God in the process. Mistakenly, they err in thinking that God changes, but He does not, and what they deem as love is actually hate towards their fellow man. For example, people love to steal, but that is not love. People love to kill, but that is not love. People love to cheat, but that is not love. People love to lie, but that is not love. Just because someone wants to do something does not make it right in the eyes of God. God’s love is pure and lines up with His Word, for He cannot go against Himself. Man claims to love, but you cannot sincerely love until you know God, and if you do not know God, you cannot claim to love, for Love is God. Sadly, just as God had to vomit the Children of Israel out the land promised to them because of their rebellion, God will once again be forced to vomit the nation that seeks to defy Him. Something to ponder…