Immigration reform needed in the home and heart

Think about your attitude to immigration, asylum seekers, and refugees. How does your practice and opinion compare to God's?

Life or death in God's presence!

Leviticus 16:1-2 NLT

1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

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See why I worry about my children?
Emily Bode, Amy Westlake,
 Gwendolyn Bode, and Bethany Bode

I can't imagine How Aaron must have felt at the death of his two sons. We read in chapter 10 of Leviticus that Aaron remained silent when Moses explained God's reason for his two sons being consumed with fire from God's presence. I'm not sure you caught it but although the rest of the Israelites were allowed to mourn officially for the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and the rest of his family and the Levites were not allowed to mourn.

The death of a child must be devastating. I worry nearly every day for the last 24 years about my children! And I've seen the grief parents have at the loss of their child up close and personal. Grief is important. Aaron was denied the normal outward signs involved in this process.

Now his brother, Moses is asked by God to speak to Aaron and warn him about his own vulnerability in the presence of God.

Leviticus is all about being able to have God's presence in the midst of his people! The presence of God is special. It is not ordinary. And for sinful people to be allowed to be in God's presence they have to be reminded they are sinful! They have to know all the ways in which they offend God. The people have to see that being close to God is a matter of life and death.

Ever since the garden of Eden, all men have been under a death sentence. And every sin confirms that they can not live in the presence of God. Something has to be done to turn around the reign of death over each and every person.

In the next chapter, God says that the only way that anyone can be made clean enough to be with him is to have someone or something give it's life in their place.

Leviticus 17:11 NLT ...for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. 

Blood given in exchange for a life, All the dead animals in the sacrificial system, and  all the barbecues for God alone, were meant to demonstrate the serious life or death situation between God and man!

Your sin offends God. It stinks to him. It amounts to treason. Your rebellion is an affront to him. Your willful cocky disobedience deserves death! But God wants to be close to you. He wants you in his family. He made you to know him. He is worthy of being known. There is nothing other than you being in his presence and worshiping him that matters. And for God sake, get over yourself. He is holy. He is pure. He is righteous in everything he does. He is the all knowing one. He is the all seeing one. He is the all powerful one. He created you. How for a millisecond can you even think you know better? What makes you imagine for a moment that you are more righteous? How can you judge God? What makes you think you have all the information? Really you know very little. You are weak. You are not very clever. You are easily deceived and you need help.

So God has a plan to bring you into his presence eternally. And his plan involved Jesus blood, given in exchange for your life. 

So he warns you as Moses warned Aaron; Don't come into God's presence without an invitation, don't come at the wrong time and don't come without being made pure by the sacrifice of someone's blood or you will loose your life.

But you can come, safely and boldly because of Jesus.

Look at what Jude says more than a thousand years later:

Jude 1:24-25

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Prayer of Praise

24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

And we can further see that although Aaron, the high priest had to be very careful and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu lost their lives for their carelessness, We can come into god's presence boldly because of Jesus.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT Christ Is Our High Priest

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Mildew from God

Leviticus 14:33-34 NLT (with a more complete passage below)

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. 
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A problem with the bathroom plaster.

Leviticus has a lot of instructions in it. I've been reading through the book and finished chapter 14 this morning. So far there have been been rules about sacrifices, rules about blood, rules about sex, rules about eating and rules about skin diseases. In each case there are two considerations. One, how does this effect my me and others practically? What do I need to do to do the right thing or remedy the situation?

Two, how does this affect my relationship with God? What do I need to do to make sure ceremonially I can participate among God's people so I can be close to God and right before him.

As I was reading along it really stuck out to me, that God said he would give some people's houses mildew.

Now from experience, I can tell you mildew is not nice and I've pasted below more of God's instructions concerning mildew. But suffice it to say mildew can wreck your home.

So, I was a bit surprised that God so clearly took credit for this unexpected 'gift' of mildew. I think it is important to note this in no way appears to be a curse for sin. It is not connected with other commands or disobedience. Mildew isn't a reminder of an event in the people’s history. Mildew may or may not be easily recoverable from, but since you always have to remove all your belongings from your house it is always going to be an imposition.

Strangely there is no clever explanation, there isn't any lesson to be learned on the subtext.

Simply, some people will have mildew of varying degrees and it comes from God. It will always be an imposition and it could result in having to tear down the house and build a new one.

I want you to understand this is a rule that for the most part won't come into play for at least another 40 years since they'll wander living in tents for four more decades. So, this is a rule for the Promised Land.

In the animated classic film, An American Tale, Fival Mousekawitz's family and whole European Jewish 'cat'  ghetto sings that 'there are no cats in America'. But after many trials along the way the promised land of America turns out to have cats. Promised lands on this earth and in this time still have problems.

God sends mildew on people.

We're not ever going to be completely comfortable in this world. We are meant to look forward to another home, another city whose builder and maker is God.

A problem with the bathroom plaster.

Then we'll live mildew free.

Hebrews 11:9-10 NLT

And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

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Leviticus 14:33-48 NLT

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew.  The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’ Before the priest goes in to inspect the house, he must have the house emptied so nothing inside will be pronounced ceremonially unclean. Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface, the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread, the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed. The contaminated material will then be taken outside the town to an area designated as ceremonially unclean. Next the inside walls of the entire house must be scraped thoroughly and the scrapings dumped in the unclean place outside the town. Other stones will be brought in to replace the ones that were removed, and the walls will be replastered. “But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered, the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled. It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean. Those who enter the house during the period of quarantine will be ceremonially unclean until evening, and all who sleep or eat in the house must wash their clothing. “But if the priest returns for his inspection and finds that the mildew has not reappeared in the house after the fresh plastering, he will pronounce it clean because the mildew is clearly gone.