Know Your True Worth

In my last post I asked readers to consider reading Leviticus during a week and prayerfully journaling a few questions. Were you interested in doing that? If so, what did you learn about God and His character?

Atonement is a big theme in Leviticus. One way to define atonement is being “at one with God.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines atonement as “reparation for an offense or injury; Satisfaction.” The second definition states atonement is “the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.”

In Leviticus God is teaching His people, the Israelites, what is needed to be reconciled with Him, and why that reconciliation is needed. 

One attribute of God which we see throughout Leviticus is His holiness. Because of His holiness the laws He gave to Moses to share with the Israelites were of utmost importance. He was teaching them (and us) about Himself – what He loves and what He hates.  Holiness describes God well, because He is “set apart” from all He created. He desires for humans to know how to relate to Him, and to walk in ways that please Him. 

In God’s goodness He cares so much about our lives that He wanted to give us specific details of what pleases Him. I love that God is this detailed… and let me give you an example or two as to why I love how detailed He is in His instructions. 

Imagine a situation where you are asked to do something, and you are disciplined or even punished for doing something wrong, but you didn’t understand your actions were wrong. Imagine if you experienced poor treatment, discipline or punishment and were given a poor grade or evaluation, but were never told why. I remember a time this happened to me… Someone I met once evaluated me and gave me a very poor grade, but told me nothing of why I received this grade, and I had no way to ask them why I had “failed” in their estimation, and thus I had no idea on how to improve. This was extremely frustrating! Thankfully, the One who created us gives us direct commands and stories throughout Leviticus and all of the Bible which detail how He designed us to live to please Him and be right with Him. Thankfully, God does not keep His ways a secret.

One specific way God helps us understand His holiness, is that during the time when Leviticus was written, God was letting His people know how to be forgiven of sin. Because God is holy, He makes a way for imperfect humanity to be forgiven so we can be in relationship with Him. A holy God, loving needs His people to understand how important it is to have a right relationship with Him and others. In Leviticus 17:11 we understand “the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the life-blood that makes atonement.” God required His people to bring a pure, perfect animal to be sacrificed for their sin. This requirement was what allowed people to make mistakes, or sin, and then be in right standing with God again. To me, this displays God’s compassion and care for His people.

One reason I am beginning to love the book of Leviticus is it speaks of a holy God, who gives instructions on how to please Him that are exact, and for a person or community’s good. And when a person or community sins against Him, He provides a way to be right with Him again. For those of you who have never read the Bible, please know that God stopped requiring people to sacrifice animals for sin almost 2000 years ago. Why? Because He allowed Jesus to sacrifice His life and pay the penalty of all of humankind’s sin once and for all. That’s a story for another time, but a very important one because we need to know how much God loves us to be able to follow Him. 

Exercise your faith.

Journal prompt: 

Have you recently experienced God’s forgiveness or another person’s forgiveness? What was that like? Have you recently forgiven another? Was it difficult?

Is it difficult to understand God as holy or “set apart“? What thoughts come to mind when you think of the word holy?

How do you see God? What are your first thoughts when you think of God?

Do your thoughts of God match what is written about Him in the Bible? Look at Leviticus 26: 45 which says, “For their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers who I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God; I am the Lord.” Do you know about God’s covenant with His people? 

If you would like to know more your next assignment is to read Genesis and Exodus, and you will have a much greater understanding of God and His desire for His people to know Him, love Him, and out of love, follow Him where He leads. If you’ve read those, I would suggest reading the book of Luke or John in the New Testament to understand what God’s love looks like.

Until our next post, remember God is love, and loves you and each person He created very much! Everything He does is for us to know His loving character and be able to respond to Him in love.