Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Leviticus. Day 21, Daring To Be Different: Entering In Through The Narrow Gate

The Lord has already forbidden the people to eat the fat of sacrifices or to drink the blood but this injunction bears repeating. They are about to enter and gradually take over a land where pagan people participate in all sorts of things like this that are abominations to the Lord. The Israelites are not to integrate with them; they are to remain a separate people. They are not to take up their customs---to worship, to eat, to dress, or to conduct their lives like those who do not know God.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: 'Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats. The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.'" (Leviticus 7:22-24) Cattle, sheep, and goats were animals that were acceptable as sacrifices to the Lord. Their fat would be offered to the Lord on the altar. Animals of this type were used for other purposes, such as food for the family or to produce milk or wool, but when they were slaughtered just for food or when one of them died naturally or was attacked by a wild animal and killed, the fat still could not be eaten even though the animal had not been offered to the Lord. The fat could be used for purposes other than eating; for example, to make candles or as a waterproofing substance for tents or to manufacture soap and detergents or as an ingredient in poultices and skin and hair treatments.

Suppose a person does eat the fat of these animals? He is to be excommunicated. "Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which a food offering may be presented to the Lord must be cut off from their people." (Leviticus 7:25)

The same goes for anyone who partakes of blood. "And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people." (Leviticus 7:26-27) The Lord is careful to point out that they must observe the custom of not ingesting blood "wherever you live". God's rules don't change according to our location. We might be completely surrounded by people who are living in opposition to God's word but that doesn't give us license to break His laws and commandments. The Lord is warning the Israelites not to conform to the ways of the tribes of the promised land. They are never to look around them and say, "Well, everybody else is doing it. Why shouldn't I?" The majority is not always in the right. In fact, the opposite is often true, as the Lord Jesus Christ warned us, "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." (Matthew 7:13a)

We must dare to be different, to go against the crowd when the crowd is wrong and to swim against the stream when the water is flowing the wrong way. We may not win many popularity contests with our fellow man when we refuse to join in with things that violate our principles but I'd rather have God on my side than ten thousand human beings who can't save my soul from sin, wouldn't you? So let's do what the Lord Jesus Christ urges us to do. Let's enter through the narrow gate, "For small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life." (Matthew 7:13b) It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about us for sticking to the principles of God. As long as God is on our side, we are going to have everything we need. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)






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