The Jealousy Ritual

Numbers 5:11–15 (HCSB)

“The LORD spoke to Moses: ‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man’s wife goes astray, is unfaithful to him, and sleeps with another, but it is concealed from her husband, and she is undetected, even though she has defiled herself, since there is no witness against her, and she wasn’t caught ‹in the act›; and if a feeling of jealousy comes over the husband and he becomes jealous because of his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of her though she has not defiled herself— then the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He is also to bring an offering for her of two quarts of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering for remembrance that brings sin to mind.’”

Here is the thing about a man: he cannot function with jealousy. Suspicion paralyzes him. So God provided a “jealousy ritual.” He did not need a private investigator to follow his wife. He could bring her to the priest and this ritual would reveal whether she was faithful or not.

Now you’re thinking: “What about the man?” Good question. There were severe penalties for a man committing adultery. But this is the thing: a woman was under a man’s authority. He had no way of knowing if she had been untrue. God gave him a way to settle the issue. The man, on the other hand, is under the God’s authority. God knows if the man has been “cheatin’ around.” Make no mistake, his sin will find him out. God will make sure of it. The winds of time eventually blow away the sands that cover our buried Egyptians. Until that time there are consequences—and after the sin is revealed there will be other consequences that could spell the end of life!

Sin is sin whether it is in a man or a woman, and God does not allow sin to go unpunished.

The Divine Disappearance

Leviticus 26:3–4; 14–16 (HCSB)

“If you follow My statutes and faithfully observe My commands, I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

“But if you do not obey Me and observe all these commands—if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands—and break My covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring terror on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.”

There are consequences of obedience—blessing, provision, protection, liberty, the Divine Presence.

There are consequences of disobedience—scarcity, want, defeat, oppression, the Silence of God.

We have to take stock of our lives. Sometimes God will withdraw His presence for a while—or so it seems—to teach us or test us. But when there is sin in our lives there is always the withdrawing of God’s hand and presence. We cry out, “Where are You, God?” He must answer, “Right where I said I would be—waiting for you to repent.”

Someone once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Are we living our lives open to the examination of the Holy Spirit? When we have sin in our hearts we will not want Him to search us. But do you desire His presence more than anything? Open your heart to Him. Allow Him to reveal your sin. Don’t argue, but confess that sin to God as sin. Don’s seek to justify. What do you want, justification for your sin or the presence of God? You cannot have both. You must be ruthless with yourself. Allow the Holy Spirit to purge your heart of all that is offensive to His holiness. Root it all out. Then the light of His presence will break through and shine in your heart again.

Ask Him to examine your heart now.

Leviticus 25:18–22 (HCSB)

“You are to observe My statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.”

Every seventh year was to be a year of jubilee. The land was to remain untilled, unplanted, and unharvested. No work was to be done. The land was to rest.

So how would people eat? God said, “I will provide a harvest in the sixth year that will be sufficient for three years. It will provide food for the seventh and the eighth years and grain to plant your crops.”

That is an amazing supply. However, we have no example of this happening. The reason? The Hebrews never observed the Year of Jubilee. They disobeyed and worked the land every year—for 490 years. Then God sent Nebuchadnezzar. They spent seventy years in Babylon. Do the math. The land received it’s rest.

What if they had obeyed God? The land would have yielded as God said it would.

Whether we obey God or not, God can be relied upon to keep His Word! We will receive from the Lord. We have the choice to determine which we receive—the blessing or the judgment.

The Law is Holy!

Leviticus 22:31–33 (HCSB)

"You are to keep My commands and do them; I am the LORD. You must not profane My holy name; I must be treated as holy among the Israelites. I am the LORD who sets you apart, the One who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD."

God is holy and everything God does is holy. We must not treat anything the Lord does as common. We must not defile any of His commands.

Occasionally I hear someone piously say, “That is Old Testament; I don’t have to obey that.”

Are not all God’s commands holy? Even though we are under grace and not under the Law are we to treat any part of God’s holy Word as common? We defile it if we do! Where do we get off thinking we can do that? Just how spiritual do we think we are that we can hold God’s law in contempt?

I’m not saying we have to live under the law. The law does not save us. The law treats us like a whipping boy—thumping us on the head every time we do wrong. It reminds us constantly or our failures—that we do not measure up—that we cannot do anything to save ourselves. The purpose of the law is to drive us to Christ. Until we have come to the law and said, “I cannot save myself” we will never come to Christ and say, “Lord, please, save this sinner!”

But we have no right to treat the law as anything other than holy. It is, after all, God’s law, and an expression of God’s own holy character. We may not live up to it, but we sure as heaven should honor it! The law therefore deserves our truest respect, just as God’s holiness deserves our truest respect.

Defiling the Land

Leviticus 20:6–8 (HCSB)

“Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists and prostitutes himself with them, I will turn against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Keep My statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sets you apart.”

Have you noticed a new fascination with the paranormal? There are shows on TV about people who talk to the dead and (so-called) scientists who investigate haunted houses. Horror movies are not just about psychos with chainsaws. The “new scary” is realism about ghosts and witches.

There was a time, I think, in this land when godly men would have cried out against this. They would have quoted Old Testament passages like this one. They felt that God had brought us to the new Promised Land in America and we had a responsibility to Him to keep it holy.

We’ve come a long way baby!

Now we daily desecrate this beautiful land with sacrilege. We do what God said not to do—and gloat over our freedom to do it! God have mercy!!

He promised judgment on the people who defiled the land with unholy practices.

People ask me if America is in prophecy. In prophecy? I don’t know that we will even be in existence! Don’t look for America in prophecy. Look for America in the promises.

Be Holy and Respect Your Elders!

Leviticus 19:1–2 (HCSB)

“The LORD spoke to Moses: ‘Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’”

Leviticus 19 is a call to experimental holiness. God gives a catalogue of holy practices. He calls us to be holy and then He tells us what that looks like in day-to-day living. Here is an example from verse 32:

“You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God; I am the LORD.”

Did you know it is holy to show respect to your elders? I confess, I had never thought of it this way. But here it is. It is unholy to disrespect the elderly. One practice of holiness is to rise when in the presence of our elders. To continue sitting is not just to disrespect them, it is to dishonor God.

This does not mean we submit to everything they say. But we must show them the utmost of our respect. A small example of that is to rise when they enter the room. This is what holiness does.

Do you want to be holy? Respect your elders today.

Life in the Blood

Leviticus 17:11 (HCSB)

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.

Notice the progression of logic in this verse. First, the life is in the blood. True, you cannot live without your blood. Second, God accepts the blood of the creature—a substitute— in the place of my blood. Third, blood makes the atonement. The consequence for sin is the death of the sinner. Praise God He accepts the blood of a substitute for my blood.

Of course this teaches us that God sees sin much more seriously than we do. We see it of little consequence. But God sees it as a heinous thing, the payment for which is the life of the sinner. This also teaches us that God has made a way for us to come to him without sacrificing our blood on the altar. This was a “set up.” God was setting the stage for something else. This was all representative, preparatory. What it anticipates is the sacrifice of Christ, God’s lamb, on the altar of Calvary. A life for a life.

This gives us our greatest reason for praise!