“Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD.”
~ Leviticus 22:31
Hi James and Ellen,
Are there laws in your home that your dad and ma made that they expect you to obey? Are there laws in your school that your teacher made that he or she expects you to obey? Are there laws in your church that your pastor made that he expects you to obey? How would you like to grow up being priest kids? Your dad is a missionary kid. Your dad is a missionary kid because his dad and ma – your grandmaa and grandpaa, are missionaries. A kid whose dad is a preacher is called a preacher’s kid. Priest kids had a Levi tribal clan heritage. God promised three different guys – Abraham, Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob, that their descendants – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, would always have the land area where they grew up and lived in as kids to always to have to live in as their very own land. Because of a devastating famine and because it was in God’s sovereign plan, Jacob (Israel), Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons and their families relocated to Egypt – where Jacob’s (Israel’s) son Joseph was already living because of what his bros did to him years earlier when they sold him to a camel caravan of Ishmaelites, where they became a large ethnic people group in Goshen. During their time in Egypt, the small Israelite people group’s tribal clans – with each tribal clan a direct descendant of Jacob (Israel), grew into a people group of well over two million guys, gals and kids. When the time came in God’s sovereign plan for His specially chosen guys and gals to return to the land of their ancestry – which was the land of Canaan, God’s sovereign pick to lead their return to Canaan was Moses. Because the Egyptians had become concerned of becoming overpopulated by the Israelite people group of guys, gals and kids, Moses was supposed to have been killed when he was born. Moses got to be instead raised in a Pharaoh’s palace. Moses – while he was growing up, was trained and skilled to become a national Egyptian leader. Moses instead killed an Egyptian guy for abusing an extended relative. After Moses had killed the Egyptian guy, the next stop for Moses in God’s sovereign plan was for him to spend forty years in a desert. By the time that God finally met Moses personally – with God using a bush that looked like it was burning, Moses probably was resigned to live for the rest of his life in a desert – shepherding sheep. The next stop that God had for Moses was to have him lead His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people groups guys and gals, out of Egypt to the land that God had promised their forefathers that their descendants would always have to live in as their very own land.
God’s expectation of His specially chosen guys and gals was that they would march directly to the land that He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their descendants would always have to live in as their very own land. Another expectation that God had of His specially chosen guys and gals was that He expected them to adopt without question a completely new belief paradigm. This new belief paradigm that God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to adopt centered only on Himself. The guys and gals who God chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals had become idolaters. Idolaters worship inanimate idol gods that have been handmade from wood, stone and metal. God’s specially chosen guys and gals worshipped the same inanimate idol gods that the guys and gals did who lived in Egypt. God’s specially chosen guys and gals may have totally lost touch with their patriarchs’ God. Located everywhere on planet Earth today are groups of guys, gals and kids who do not know that your Father God really does exist as a Divine Being. When God pulled and pushed His specially chosen guys, gals and kids out of Egypt – using Moses as His point guy, God gave them new law driven worship norms. God’s specially chosen guys and gals got the chance to personally witness the power and the presence of God. God’s specially chosen guys and gals saw the effects of ten plagues in Egypt. God’s specially chosen guys and gals saw a sea suddenly divide and close at just the right moments. God’s specially chosen guys and gals followed a pillar of fire during the night and a cloud during the day – knowing that God was in the pillar of fire and in the cloud. God passed on through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals the worship laws that He expected them to follow and obey. God positioned Aaron to be his first high priest for His specially chosen guys and gals. Aaron was Moses’ big bro.
If you are living 3450 years ago and you are priest kids, you will see your dad watching to see who eats the food that he has sacrificed as sacred offerings to God. Leviticus 22 outlines a couple of things that your dad would have had to have been very careful about. Your dad could only let certain guys in his immediate family circle eat meat that was sacrificed as a sacred offering to God. Your dad was not to let any guy who was unclean or sick get near any sacred offering. Any guy who offered an animal from his herd or flock as a burnt offering to God to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, had to offer an animal that did not have any defect or blemish. God gave very explicit laws through Moses to the guys and gals who God had specially chosen for Himself to live by in their new belief paradigm. God’s expectations of His specially chosen guys and gals are clearly stated in verse 31, ““Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD.” Your dad – if he is a Levi tribal clan priest 3450 years ago, would be in big time trouble with God if he did not live by the new set of norms and standards that God passed down through Moses in His new belief paradigm to him. Are you glad that the murder of God the Son on a crude wood cross about 2000 years ago did away with all those very strict laws that God gave about 3450 years ago through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals – that if you disobeyed any one of the laws that it could result in you having to die?
Leviticus 22 (492)