Sorry, Moses.

Most times I've decided to read the Bible from cover to cover, I have given up somewhere in the midst of Leviticus and skipped ahead to lighter books. Leviticus is riddled with detailed instructions from God on how Moses was to build His Holy places and with directions on every sacrifice imaginable in vivid, gruesome detail. By the time I'm a few chapters in I am thanking the Lord for sending His Son, Jesus, to be the final sacrifice so that I don't have to do any of these rituals to be saved, and this time around it was no different...at first. Somewhere beyond the altar measurements something else stood out to me, peeking around the line after line of bloodshed and butchery, whispering: "hey! look over here!".

Well, I looked, and this time I noticed the significance of the sacrifices more than just the sacrifices alone. I can't tell you how many times I have read this book and been unable to see beyond the acts themselves, but that's one of the many reasons I love the Bible. It's like an onion.......oh never mind, I'm not going to go there. :O)

One of those things I noticed was the significance of all the preparations the people, especially the priests, had to go through. With a perfunctory glance, God looks like the micro-manager to end all micro-managers and I find myself asking Him "Seriously? Is this all really necessary?". Well, today He answered me. He said "Yes, it was." See, the true concept of complete holiness has always been a hard one for me to grasp and even harder for me to put into words, but I'll try anyway. God is perfect (holy). In Him there is no darkness. None whatsoever. So, to offer Him something that He could possibly accept, it too has to be perfect, as does the person offering it. This poses a bit of a problem, doesn't it? There are no perfect people. Enter the myriad of rituals and regulations the priests and people must perform just to present an offering to the Lord. These rules were set forth for the people's protection. Approaching an all holy God in an unholy way was a recipe for disaster. Why does God care? Why couldn't He just look over our imperfections in body and spirit and accept our offerings as is? Because that is less than perfect. He can't be less than perfect, it's against His very character. Marinate in that for awhile.

The other thing that stood out to me this morning was how God made all sorts of mandatory festivals and celebrations (all with their own strict rules, of course) throughout the year for His people. My knee jerk reaction to reading about these events was always that they sounded like a tremendous amount of work to pull off. I was always glad I didn't have to keep them. But today I had a different thought. Today I realized that they were meant to remind the people of all that God had done for them for generations to come. Annual  physical retellings of how God has cared for His people and delivered them, time and time again, thoughtfully designed to teach the future generations of His truth. Now I wish I had been celebrating them this way all this time. Of course my family celebrates Christmas and Easter, but it's always been in a very secular, non-intentional, non-God centered way. Sure, we go to church and talk about what the seasons mean to us as followers of Christ, but it always ends with the kids more excited about the prospect of presents and candy rather than a God who loves them enough to send His only Son to die for them. I think I'm doing something very wrong here.

Of all the books in the Bible, I have held the least regard for Leviticus. Well, Moses, consider this my sincerest apology. I have missed the point for many years when I saw this book as irrelevant to my life now. I will no longer make that mistake.

What do you do to point to Jesus during the holiday seasons? What traditions do you keep in your family to ensure that the meaning is not lost over time? I'd love to hear about them!