31 EMOR (say); Lev 21-24, Luke 18-20

[Bruce Bertram]

Priests, we are told in chapter 21 of Leviticus, are not allowed to defile themselves by touching a dead body, except for close relatives. The high priest, however, can’t defile himself for anyone, even for a mother or father who dies. In addition, he can only marry a virgin of his own people, not a widow or divorced woman or harlot. No priest who has a physical defect is allowed to offer the sacrifices at the Tabernacle, and moving on to chapter 22 they are to be careful with the sacrifices and not even approach the gifts or the altar if they are unclean. They also cannot eat of the holy gifts if they are a leper, or are unclean in any other way until after evening. The priest is not to eat animals that are torn or die of themselves. No one who is a visitor or hireling can eat of the priest’s food. Only those born in the priest’s home or slaves who are purchased, or a daughter who doesn’t have a husband, my partake. If someone does eat unintentionally, they must pay it back and add a fifth to it.

Any animal offered as a sacrifice must be without defect, except if the defect is a stunted member it may be offered as a peace offering. It must also be older than seven days, and both a mother and offspring can’t be offered on the same day, and the command to eat the thanksgiving offering on the same day is repeated. The purpose for these commands is stated thus by God.

31“So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the LORD. 32“You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you, 33who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 22:31-33 NASB95)

Leviticus 23 recaps all of the feasts, also known as ‘God’s ‘appointed times’ and ‘holy convocations.’ The first in order is the weekly Sabbath, the day of rest from working. Then starting with the first month (Nissan) God lays out the cycle of annual celebrations with their attendant sacrifices. Passover is on the 14th day of the first month, and is essentially a meal. This appointed time kicks off the seven days of Unleavened Bread, during which only unleavened bread is eaten, offerings by fire are made, and the first and seventh days are additional Sabbaths. After Israel enters the land promised by God, before they begin to eat of the harvest they must bring in some of it to wave before the Lord in a festival called ‘First Fruits.’ A lamb and grain and wine offering is also made at the same time. This is to be done the day after the Sabbath. Counting from that day forward, seven weeks are to be counted, then the appointment of the feast of Weeks is to be observed which is also a Sabbath, with grain offerings and two loaves of leavened bread. In addition seven lambs, a bull, and two rams as a burnt offering, along with one goat and two male lambs as sin offerings. Here we are also told as a ‘by the way’ not to harvest all the corners of a field also.

In the seventh month (Tishrei) on the first day is a Sabbath and a day of blowing trumpets a reminder and offerings by fire. Ten days later on the tenth of the month is the day of atonement, a day of absolutely no work including that of preparing meals. God’s people are to ‘afflict their souls’ (probably by fasting) and this is the day the high priest goes into the holy of holies to offer the atonement sacrifice. Five days after this on the fifteenth of that month starts the feast of Booths or Tabernacles for seven days, on the first and eighth day of which are Sabbaths. Foliage of beautiful trees is to be used to celebrate for seven days. All native born Israelites must live in booths for the seven days.

Leviticus 24 has instructions for keeping the lamps (menorah) in the Tabernacle burning at all times with oil given by the congregation, as well as the bread for the table every Sabbath. There is an incident described here where a man curses another man in a fight, using the name of God in the process. He is incarcerated then executed by stoning, and God uses the occasion to stipulate the death penalty for anyone else who uses God’s name wrongly, as well as to speak of equal justice for killing another human, killing an animal, injuring a human or injuring an animal.

In Luke 18 Jesus continues His teaching on prayer from the previous chapter, in this instance encouraging the disciples to persevere, using the parable of a judge who didn’t fear God and a widow who pestered him until he gave her justice. Then Jesus says that if a judge who doesn’t fear God will give a widow justice because she keeps asking, how much more will God answer the prayers of His elect?

8“I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8 NASB95)

On righteousness, again connected with the questions and testing from the religious leaders over the past few chapters, Jesus talks about two men who stand outside the Temple. One is a Pharisee and is convinced he’s right before God, another is a tax collector who simply says, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus says that the sinner is the one who went home justified, and that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Then Jesus blesses some children, and admonishes the disciples to allow them to continue coming.

A rich young ruler comes to Jesus and asks how to inherit eternal life. Jesus quotes the commands to him, but the ruler thinks he has done all these. So Jesus says, in keeping with previous comments on greed and worry in earlier chapters, that the ruler has to sell all he has and follow Jesus. The ruler goes away sad because he has much wealth. So Jesus speaks for a little bit on the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom, relating it to a camel going through the eye of a needle. He also reassures the disciples that whoever loses homes and family for the sake of the kingdom will receive many times as much in the kingdom. Jesus mentions again what He must soon suffer at the hands of men in Jerusalem, even though the disciples do not understand. As they are continuing to travel toward Jericho on their way to Jerusalem, a blind man cries out and asks for the Son of David to heal him. Jesus does, and continues on. Zaccheus, a rich tax collector, is trying to see Him over the crowds but he is too short. So he runs ahead and climbs into a sycamore tree to be able to see better. Jesus looks at him and tells him to come down so he can go eat at the man’s house. Some of the religious leaders grumble because Zaccheus is a sinner, but he tells Jesus that he has given half his money away and will repay anyone he has wronged four times as much. Jesus says that ‘today salvation has come to this house’ because the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.

Because Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, and people are expectant that the kingdom was going to appear immediately, He tells a parable of a ruler who went to another country to receive a kingdom for himself. He gives ten servants 10 minas to do business with while he’s gone. Some of the people of the kingdom send him a message as he’s traveling that they don’t want him to be king. When the ruler gets back he asks for an accounting from the servants for the money. One said the ruler’s money made 10 more minas. That servant is commended and given ten towns to govern. Another said the 10 minas made five more, and was given five towns to administer. However, one servant said the ruler was a hard man, reaping where he didn’t sow, and the servant was afraid so he just kept the money to give back. This servant had the money taken from him and given to the guy with 10, and the people who sent the message refusing his rulership were ordered slain. Jesus says, “To him who has, more will be given, and to him who has not even what he has will be taken away.”

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, a colt is found at His direction for Him to ride on. A great deal of celebration is made as He rides into town. Pharisees want Jesus to rebuke His disciples, but He replies, “Even if they became silent the rocks would cry out.” As He gets closer He weeps over the city and predicts it’s destruction. Then He goes to the Temple and chases out the people who were selling, and teaches in the courts every day while people hang on His every word. This is why the religious leaders couldn’t do anything about Him for a while.

In chapter 20 Jesus begins a testing process by the religious leaders. First up is a question about His authority to do the things He has been doing. Jesus answers with a question about the baptism of John which the religious leaders can’t answer, so Jesus doesn’t tell them about His authority. He goes on to tell a parable of the owner of a vineyard who went on a journey and rented out the vineyard to tenants. He sends a series of servants back to collect the rent, but they are beaten and sent back empty handed. Finally the vineyard owner sends his son, but the son is killed so the tenants can get the vineyard. He asks the religious leaders what will happen when the owner returns? The owner will destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The religious leaders answer, “May it never be!” But Jesus asks them what does the Isaiah reference mean that speaks of the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner? They understood that the parable was about them and dearly wanted to grab Him and kill Him right there, but were afraid of the people. So they sent people to continue testing Him to trip Him up. Next test was the question about paying taxes to Caesar, which Jesus neatly answers by pointing to a picture of Caesar on a coin and answering, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” The third test in this section was the Sadducees question on the resurrection, using a question of a woman married to seven brothers in succession and asking who’s wife she would be in the resurrection. Jesus points out that God is a God of the living, not the dead, and that people in the resurrection won’t need to marry. Now the leaders are spooked, and so Jesus asks His own question about Psalm 110:1.

42“For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, 43UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.” ’ 44“Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord,’ and how is He his son?” (Luke 20:42-44 NASB95)

But the leaders can’t answer this one either.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

For another take on this subject, see 26 Shemini and the title Acceptable.

In a number of places God speaks of doing certain things in order for sacrifices or offerings or even people to be accepted (such as in our current section in Lev. 22:19-21, 23, 25 and so on). It is not enough to make an offering, for instance, it must be a prime animal without defect to be accepted. The priest doing the offering cannot have a defect, nor can he make himself unclean, so that what he is offering will be accepted, and the person who is making the offering will likewise be accepted. There seems to be quite an emphasis on acceptance, both from God’s viewpoint of wanting to accept and the person’s desire to be accepted.

All people want to be accepted. Sometimes we just want to be accepted by people we regard as friends, sometimes we want to be accepted by the opposite gender, and sometimes by the IRS! At least as far as our tax returns go. Acceptance is very important to almost everybody. And whether we want to admit it or not, we want to be accepted by God. This, of course, is the most important acceptance of all. Without it we do not experience the presence of God in our midst, either the midst of our assembly or the midst of our own person. Oh, we might experience a spillover of blessings from the proximity of God, such as rain on crops or a bountiful harvest, but that just isn’t the same thing as the peace and blessing that comes from being accepted by Him.

Jesus speaks of acceptance in our Luke section in several ways. Once He encourages His people to persevere in prayer to be accepted (18:1-8 ), He speaks of wealth hindering acceptance, and He even accepts a tax collector! (18:18-30) He also drives people out of the temple that are doing things not acceptable (19:45-48 ) and is subjected to the lack of acceptance of the religious leaders, even though He acceptably answers their testing questions of Him. Ultimately they will go so far in their lack of acceptance that they have Him killed.

Acceptance is easy. God in His grace does not make us guess what it takes, and He doesn’t change His requirements from week to week as some gods do. He spells out exactly what He deems necessary in no uncertain terms, both in black and white and in our hearts or conscience.

18A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20“You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’ ” (Luke 18:18-20 NASB95

23Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. (John 14:23-24 NASB95)

He reveals Himself in creation in far more elaborate ways than a newspaper ad or a billboard, so that there is no excuse.

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20 NASB95)

Not only has He told us what the acceptable standard is, He has also paved the way to acceptance by sending His own Son to absorb the penalties for any failure in living up to that standard. He’s practically done everything to help us, from start to finish. It’s so easy a child can do it.

16But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” (Luke 18:16-17 NASB95)

So what’s the big deal? If everyone wants to be accepted, why do so many reject God so often and so thoroughly? Why do so many so often feel as if they are not accepted? The answer is rather simple.

9And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14“I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 NASB95)

Instead of accepting God’s standard and His provision to meet that standard, people want to be accepted on their own terms instead of God’s. It’s not a matter of provision or ignorance; it’s a matter of pride. We want to change the standard, and we want to get there under our own power, so that all the credit will go to our own account. We want the glory, even if we have to steal it from God.

A child is humble, in that he or she recognizes there is someone greater and submits. Unfortunately by the time adulthood is reached, pride has frequently won out and submission is much further away. As time goes on, the heart gets harder and harder. Pride in our own accomplishments drives us ever further from God. To be accepted by Him means to recognize that God is greater than we and is the source of all we need. We cannot gain acceptance by working in our own ways. We must, like children, humbly submit to His ways, lovingly accepting Him by doing all He says.

God has specific ways for men to be able to return to intimacy and peace with Him. These ways are holiness and justice and love, and not just some arbitrary hoops to jump through because He likes to see us squirm. No, they are the way they are because no other way will do.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23; Ezekiel 44:15-31; Luke 18 through 20; Mat. 5:38-42; Galatians 3:26-29

For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” (Luke 20:42–44, ESV)

Luke 20 seems to be a series of events tied together in one day (Luke 20:21), perhaps continuing on into chapter 21. It starts with a challenge to the authority of Jesus by a group of the religious leaders of the day, and ends with a parting shot from Jesus concerning the same question and a warning to beware of the scribes. In between Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants who reject the authority of the vineyard owner and answers two questions on paying taxes and the resurrection. We don’t know the timing of the events, but Luke chose to place these together. It seems to me they are all related to the basic subject of authority.

The religious leaders were attacking the person instead of the works or the ideas. This is called an ‘ad hominem’ (literally ‘to the man’) attack, and is used by people in modern times regularly. Especially by liberals and other people with bankrupt ideologies and agendas to discredit better ideas and better people. If your ideas or actions don’t have merit, attack the person doing the challenging. Say that he’s ugly and his mother dresses him funny, instead of intelligently and reasonably answering the question. Jesus challenges the religious leaders on a regular basis, and they have no answer. Not even to their own questions and teachings (baptism of John, son of David being Lord). The works of Jesus could not be denied. He healed people, and you could see the proof with your own eyes. He tossed out demons, and again the proof was right there in front of God and everybody. He even raised people from the dead, and the witness of His ability and power was walking around eating meals. The leaders couldn’t attack what Jesus did, so they attacked Jesus personally. The crucifixion of Jesus was the worst ad hominem attack ever.

Authority was a big issue then as now. To gain authority, the rabbis, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and whatever would point to a teacher. They would play a game of one-upmanship to see who could quote the most famous teacher to support their point, or the oldest teacher, or the longest dead teacher. Or a combination of all three. They would get more authority the further back in history they could go. They would always claim that their teaching was backed up by their teacher’s teaching and so on. So the religious leaders wanted to know who the teachers of Jesus were. The works themselves didn’t count, in their view, until they were backed up by the authority of a recognized teacher.

Trouble is, Jesus had no teacher except Himself. He is The Teacher. His actions and His words testified to the fact that He was from God, taught what God would teach, and did what God would do. The religious leaders didn’t really want to know the authority anyway. All they wanted to do was argue some more, and push the works that Jesus was doing to the back burner. In other words, they weren’t trying to learn and repent. They were trying to make Jesus look bad so the people would stop listening and following Him.

Two statements concerning the authority of Jesus in this chapter are very powerful and have an ancient history. One I’ve already quoted, and the other was about the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner.

Psalm 110 is recognized by any knowledgeable person as a psalm of the promised Messiah.

A PSALM OF DAVID. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head. (Psalm 110:1–7, ESV)

David wrote that the Lord (which would be God) said to my Lord (which would be somebody alive who would rule over David) “sit at my right hand (a position of power and authority wielded on behalf of God) until I make your enemies your footstool” (a comment both on God’s working for the benefit of His ‘right hand man’ and that the enemies of God would become a footstool for the Messiah). The glitch comes in when Jesus rightly says, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?” It’s not that the Anointed One isn’t David’s son. The religious leaders taught that the Messiah would be descended from David, as the Scriptures said.

Jesus is saying that if the Messiah is the son of David, how can He also be David’s Lord? David’s Lord would have to be alive, and have to be God. The only way this could happen is if God, The Lord, came in the flesh as a son of David. The leaders knew exactly what Jesus was saying. He was saying His authority was unquestionable because He is the son of David and the Son of God at one and the same time.

The head of the corner describes the first stone of a building from which everything else in the building would be measured and set. It had to be perfect, so the rest of the construction would go perfectly too. This is still true today, when we build with stone. So the head of the corner was the first stone in the foundation, it was at a corner, it was perfectly square, and it had to be set properly for the rest of the building to go together square, straight and strong. Jesus was saying His authority would be such that He would be rejected by the builders. But the builders were going to get a surprise because He (the rejected stone) would become the head of the corner.

He is square and straight and level and plumb. It is the religious leaders that are out of whack. They are the ones that will be rejected. Jesus was rejected by crooked people, and if you are rejected by crooked people, then you must, by definition, be straight. We see this today all the time. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. An atheist walks into a church… The old adage ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ is another way to state it. The leaders were asking for authority when they had all the authority they needed in the works of Jesus.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, priests and elders all had an image of what the Messiah should be. They knew he was the son of David. They knew he would be lord. But they thought he would dance to their authority tune (Matthew 11:17). What they rejected was a Messiah that had the authority to reject them. Jesus told them the Messiah had to be God, because David (a man after God’s own heart 1 Samuel 13:14) would accept no other Lord (Exodus 20:3; 22:13, 20). So the Messiah had to be God. Jesus told the religious leaders that the Messiah had to be God, and clearly stated that He was also the Messiah.

Modern religious leaders, fearful of challenges to their hegemony (just like the leaders Jesus collided with), routinely winnow out those in their kingdoms who would dare to question their self-created orthodoxy and theological purity by asking similar questions as their brethren did with Jesus. They build an image that uses some Scripture but is not Scriptural. The Jesus they present is nowhere in the Word. They’ve created a false god that looks like a Caucasian Greek pacifist flower-child hippy who spouts one-liners about peace and love, who allegedly destroyed The Law which Jesus said could never be broken (John 10:35) and replaced it with some fanciful ‘new covenant’ that bears no relation to the actual new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Now we’re supposed to bow down and worship their creation just because they say so. If we don’t, if we respond with Scripture such as Jesus did and which they likewise cannot answer, the cry still arises, “Crucify them!” Just like their ancient brethren standing there questioning in the temple, they use ad hominem attacks on anyone that dares to say their image is not the real one.

“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Luke 20:46–47, ESV)

The authority of Jesus is unquestioned by those who are truly looking for the authority of God in their lives. It is only those who want to maintain their grasp on their self-built kingdoms that try to destroy others with ad hominem attacks. The biblical Jesus is David’s Lord because He is God. He is not a pacifist; afraid to fight, just because He humbly submitted to God’s will. He knows that peace and love are only found in likewise humbly submitting to every word from God’s mouth.

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:4, ESV)

He teaches us the same message that He has taught throughout history – from the Garden to Mt. Sinai to the Incarnation to the present day. Love God, love His Son, love each other, love His Word including the Law, and live.

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Luke 20:18, ESV)

Shalom
Bruce