After offering many reasons why the Lord should help, the Psalmist ultimately based his appeal on the Lord’s own “mercy.” The word in the Hebrew is “chesed,” which may also refer to God’s loving-kindness, his covenantal and unfailing love. In the New Testament this most closely matches the word “agape” love, as found in John 3:16, “For God so loved.” The Psalmist was praying, “Rise up our Help and redeem us according to the quality of Your covenantal love and not according to our own desert.”
Jesus often used hyperbole to make a point. After taking a child onto his lap, he warned against anyone who would cause such a little one who believed in Him to stumble. He told them it would be better that such a one have a millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea. Then, he warned against allowing anyone or anything to cause us to sin as well. He illustrated this with three parts of the human body, the hands, the feet and the eyes, in his warning to drive home the extreme seriousness of sin’s penalty. He taught that it was better to enter heaven missing a hand, a foot or an eye, than to go to hell with them. Perhaps the apostle John had these three warnings in view when he wrote, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). Do not let anyone or anything, no matter how dear it may be to you, cause you to choose sin over believing in Christ.
The Lord taught the Israelites that they were to “be holy to” Him. It was He that had “separated” them from other “peoples.” Just as the temple implements and clothing were actually common until they were “separated” from others and set apart for special use, so they were to “be holy to” the Lord. That they were chosen “from the peoples” of the world was not a rejection of the other nations. The Israelites were not holy to Him because of who they were, but because of who He is. He had chosen them and “separated” them from other peoples because of His intent to make them the means by which He would call all peoples to Himself. The prophet Zechariah wrote of this future purpose, saying, “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst” (Zech. 2:11). Until then, the many moral, civil and ceremonial laws were given to separate the Israelites from the other nations and prepare them to be the people to whom the Messiah, God’s Son, would be born. As John wrote in fulfillment of Zechariah, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
David had learned to encourage himself in the Lord (1 Sam. 30:6). This psalm illustrates his method. When he felt down or out of sorts, he didn’t just drag on, he stopped and found a quiet place to get alone with God. He addressed his soul, searching inside for the source of his own “disquiet.” Getting in touch with his own feelings and doubts, he carried them to the Lord, confessing his soul’s condition and changing the object of his hope from self to God. He was essentially saying, “Soul, stop hoping in yourself, that’s why you’re feeling so worried. Instead, hope in God!” After a look in the mirror to see the source of his soul’s condition, he looked up to seek the “countenance” of the Lord. Like the countenance of an anxious child that brightens to a smile when seeing the face of his mother, so David sought the help of seeing the Lord’s face.
The Lord told Moses to tell his brother, Aaron, that even though he was the high priest, he was not allowed to enter the Holy Place “just any time” he wanted. The Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, was the inner room behind the veil that contained the Ark of the Covenant. Covering the Ark was a golden lid fashioned between two golden cherubim that was called the “mercy seat.” Upon this, the presence of the Lord would rest in the form of a cloud. It was on this mercy seat that the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of atonement once a year on the Day of Atonement (“Yom Kippur”). This was the only time that the Lord permitted him into His throne room (With the exception of when the camp had to be packed up for travel, at which time the cloud would move out of the Tabernacle and become a pillar of cloud leading the people).
This was the old covenant until Christ was crucified and the curtain to the Holy Place was torn (Matt. 27:50-51), establishing a new covenant and opening up a new way to God’s throne room to all who are in Christ Jesus. Now, we can enter at any time because Christ, our Great High Priest, is ever seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us (Heb. 8:1-2). We can “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy” (Heb. 4:16) because of Christ’s priestly work on our behalf.
Why does God’s Word contain laws concerning leprosy?
The laws in Leviticus are in three categories: 1) Moral, 2) Ceremonial and 3) Civil. Moral laws are perpetual, revealing the character of God and showing us how to treat both God and man. Ceremonial laws have to do with temple worship, holy days, and the sacrificial system. Civil laws have the effect of setting the Jews apart as God’s peculiar people. The leprosy laws fall into the last two categories, they both preserve the holiness of corporate worship and protect the civil community from communicable disease.
Yet, within these laws there are spiritual signs that point to Christ. Consider the elements of the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop.
– The two birds: This points to the union of the two natures in Christ, both human and divine. The one sacrificed and its blood shed points to His crucifixion and death. The one let loose points to His resurrection and ascension.
– The cedar wood: This points to the cross itself.
– The scarlet: The color of the robe the Roman soldiers put on Christ and mocked Him (Matt. 27:28).
– The hyssop: The Roman soldiers lifted a sponge filled with sour wine with a hyssop branch to Christ on the cross (John 19:28-30).
Leviticus is rich with spiritual meaning and metaphor when we read it through the lens of the New Testament.
Even though David was king, he saw himself as a stranger and sojourner in this life. His psalm is a meditation on the brevity and vanity of life and the need for God’s help and perspective to make meaning of it all. On top of this, he is aware not only of his own frailty, but of his own sin, and the sense that God is disciplining him for it. He cried out that God would hear him and that he would hear from God.
Life is hard enough without feeling that God is against you. When we feel this way, we can cry out as David did. Pray out your hurts and fears. Be honest. God knows. God hears. God answers.
The law for the purification of a woman who had given birth to a male child called for the child to be circumcised on the 8th day. After the circumcision of her son, she had to wait thirty-three more days to complete her time of purification. Then, she was to bring with her to the Temple a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering. Yet, the law further stated that another pigeon might be substituted for the lamb if the mother “is not able to bring a lamb.” This provision for the poor was utilized by Mary and Joseph when they brought baby Jesus from Bethlehem to Jerusalem on the 8th day to be circumcised. And Mary brought “two turtledoves or pigeons” as an offering as they presented Jesus to the Lord (Luke 2:21-24). They did this that all the law might be fulfilled concerning Jesus.
That this provision was utilized points to the poverty of the young couple to whom Jesus was born. This took place after the visit of the shepherds, but before the visit of the Magi, for their gifts would have made the purchase of a lamb possible for the couple.
Isn’t it wonderful that God’s law made provision for the poor and especially for the Son that became poor for our sakes, that we might become rich in Him (2 Cor. 8:9)?
After days of instruction and training, and seven days of consecration, two of the newly minted Aaronic priests decided to offer their own version of worship to the Lord before the people of God. This was the first worship service in the newly ordained Tabernacle and the Lord was so pleased, that He allowed His glory to appear to all the people, sending fire that consumed the offering that Aaron had placed on the altar. The people let out a great shout at this display and fell on their faces before the Lord. It was at this time of appropriate and authentic worship, that Nadab and Abihu drew attention to themselves, by ad-libbing their own fiery display. Not only was their activity ill-timed and distracting from God’s glory, it was against the training and instruction they had been given as priests. Their fire was “profane,” not taken from the altar as was prescribed, but lit from their own fire, and placed in their own censer. Their motive for this false worship was not revealed, but the Lord’s response is revealing. The same fire that went out from the Lord to consume the offering on the altar, now went out and “devoured” Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron.
The Lord would not allow His priests to vary from His worship order, especially at the inaugural service of the Tabernacle. If He allowed such self improvisation from the beginning, how far might the people stray after a time? Every detail of the worship service had been revealed to Moses, so that the people would be prepared for its future fulfillment in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Any variation, whether subtraction or addition, would garble the message that pointed to Jesus.
There seems to be a similarity between the deaths of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 and that of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. In both cases, they are at the beginning of a new era. The sons of Aaron, offered “profane fire” at the first worship service of the Mosaic Covenant and the Lord struck them dead. And Ananias and Sapphira offered a false offering just as the Church age commenced following Pentecost, and they both fell dead for it. The Lord seemed to be setting a precedent, that those who would worship Him must worship in “spirit and truth” (John 4:24). False worship would not be accepted.
Sprinkle or pour?
Moses consecrated the Tabernacle with all its implements, “sprinkling” them with the special anointing oil as the Lord commanded. Then, he washed Aaron and his sons with water, clothed him in priestly garments, and “poured” the anointing oil on his head to consecrate him as high priest. David wrote of the copious amount of oil poured on Aaron’s head, comparing it to the luxurious fragrance of unity among God’s people, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!” (Psalm 133:1-2).
There is much symbolism to consider in the consecration of Aaron and his sons. For as believers, our sins are “washed” away by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice (Heb. 10:19-22, 1 John 1:7). We are clothed in new clothes of righteousness, putting off the old man and putting on the new in Christ (Col. 3:1-15). And we have been anointed with the “oil” of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Yet, Aaron the high priest, who had the anointing oil “poured” on him, is a foreshadowing of Christ, the Anointed One, our Great High Priest (Heb. 4:14-15). “For in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Col. 2:9).
And it was Christ, who has “poured” out His Spirit upon us!