back to index2018-11-14: Wed Bible Study - Lesson 27
00:00:00.000 |
As you guys know, we're in the last chapter of the book of Leviticus, chapter 27. 00:00:12.680 |
I'm not going to ask you how many of you actually studied 27 before you came, because I don't 00:00:20.720 |
But if you did read it, if you did study it, you probably came kind of confused. 00:00:26.160 |
Maybe one of the first questions that you asked was, "Why does the book of Leviticus 00:00:33.400 |
And those of you who make absolutely no expression, I'm assuming it's because you don't know. 00:00:39.240 |
So if you did read it, you probably was thinking, "Wow, that's a really strange way to finish 00:00:48.400 |
There is a purpose behind that, and again, and hopefully through our study that we'll 00:00:54.160 |
Some of you guys know, I just came back from Hawaii. 00:00:57.400 |
I know I don't have a tan because I'm already dark as it is, but I had to attend a wedding 00:01:05.360 |
And the whole time I was there in Hawaii, I was thinking, "How do Christians stay sober 00:01:10.320 |
Because the whole environment is vacation, and it's just relaxed, and the whole theme 00:01:14.240 |
is just take it easy, Shakabra, mahalo, and then even their formal attire is kind of like 00:01:26.040 |
And I was just thinking to myself, "How do people stay spiritually sober and live with 00:01:30.600 |
a sense of urgency and pray with desperation when all your environment constantly tells 00:01:40.000 |
But then I was also thinking, "That's not just true in Hawaii. 00:01:45.400 |
If we allow our environment to dictate our spiritual condition, it is no safer here than 00:01:53.160 |
It is no safer in LA or anywhere else we live because if you're dependent upon anything 00:02:00.200 |
external to determine how focused you are spiritually, you will always be spiritual 00:02:07.500 |
infants being tossed here and fro depending upon what comes into town and who you meet 00:02:12.680 |
with and what happens to be the environment that you live in. 00:02:16.360 |
You and I happen to live in Orange County where we are relaxed. 00:02:20.960 |
We may not be as extreme as Hawaii, but everything around us basically tells us everything is 00:02:29.600 |
And I got an email from India, from one of our Indian pastors, because they heard about 00:02:34.240 |
And, you know, obviously it's a huge news across, and they emailed me, worried about 00:02:43.320 |
You know, I said, "Hey, worry about yourself. 00:02:48.280 |
It's obviously there are people who are being deeply affected by what's happening. 00:02:53.000 |
But for us in Orange County, you know, we're doing okay. 00:02:56.720 |
The reason I want to share this is because the fight that you guys are, you and I are 00:03:02.680 |
in to stay sober on a day-to-day basis, that is not something that you do once a year when 00:03:08.720 |
you go to retreats or when you go to, you know, when you go to like Mission Field or 00:03:15.000 |
If that is not your daily fight to keep sober, you will lose. 00:03:20.320 |
You will live lukewarm life, just kind of being tossed back and forth, and you wait 00:03:24.440 |
until somebody gets up on the pulpit or maybe your small group leader to say, "Hey, get 00:03:29.560 |
But as soon as that person is no longer in your life, you start to drift. 00:03:33.820 |
And I've seen that so many times over and over again throughout the years, where people 00:03:38.200 |
are great as long as they're with certain people in certain environment. 00:03:42.340 |
But as soon as they are separated from that environment, they just start drifting out. 00:03:47.040 |
Next thing you know, a year, two years, five years down the line, these same people who 00:03:50.520 |
are passionate for God are no longer walking with God. 00:03:53.840 |
And every single one of us is susceptible to that. 00:03:58.400 |
So the reason why, again, I share this is why a careful study of the Word of God is 00:04:03.520 |
so important because it stimulates our mind, it stimulates our heart, and reminds us of 00:04:08.200 |
the spiritual reality that you and I are living in, right? 00:04:12.160 |
You and I are here because we believe, we have faith, that there is more to this life 00:04:19.720 |
The job that you have, the getting married and having kids, and then eventually getting 00:04:23.040 |
old and die, we believe that there's much more to life than that. 00:04:30.480 |
And so in the context of studying the Scriptures, we have to ask ourselves, are we living, being 00:04:36.240 |
spiritually sober, being reminded of the spiritual reality, or is this just something that happens 00:04:41.480 |
every once in a while because you come to church, right? 00:04:44.960 |
And so, again, I want to remind you and encourage you that if you, even in just this week, if 00:04:51.120 |
you saw your heart and your mind tripped on to something and you're just kind of coasting 00:04:54.840 |
along, that use the opportunity that we have together, right? 00:04:58.920 |
Consider how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds, especially as you see 00:05:01.600 |
the day drawing near, as the days are getting colder and that the love for God is, at least 00:05:07.800 |
around us, is getting colder, that we do not fall into that same temptation, okay? 00:05:16.920 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you for this evening. 00:05:19.720 |
We thank you for the fellowship of the brothers and sisters. 00:05:22.680 |
Lord, as we live in this world and knowing, Father God, that we are not of this world, 00:05:28.960 |
how easily we forget from day to day, Father God, that our destiny is in a different place. 00:05:36.120 |
Help us not to envy this world that is under your condemnation. 00:05:40.000 |
Help us to have mercy, compassion for them, that we would live sober lives, Lord God, 00:05:45.400 |
to shine the light that you've given us, that for their sake, help us, Lord God, to really 00:05:53.640 |
We thank you, Father, and we ask that you would bless this time. 00:06:02.100 |
So the Bible study that we're having in chapter 27, Leviticus, as you guys know, began with 00:06:08.640 |
the instruction of how sinful people can approach a holy God through the sacrifices, right? 00:06:13.840 |
So the first five chapters basically lays out, if you want God to be in your midst, 00:06:20.520 |
And obviously, ultimately points to the fulfillment of Christ's sacrifice in us. 00:06:24.620 |
If we're going to restore the relationship that was broken with God, unless we're covered 00:06:32.380 |
by the blood of Christ, he cannot dwell among us, right? 00:06:38.780 |
So there has to be something done about the sin. 00:06:43.500 |
Tabernacle was a place where animals were sacrificed to cover the sins of mankind, right? 00:06:51.620 |
And so all of Leviticus are specific instructions of how to approach God, how sinful people 00:06:57.940 |
can approach God and how he can stay in their midst. 00:07:00.740 |
Chapter 27 ends with instruction how sinful people can maintain their relationship with 00:07:08.620 |
Through these vows that they have made and the ones that they could not keep. 00:07:13.820 |
And basically he's outlining how to redeem vows that they could not keep. 00:07:21.100 |
Now for chapter 27 to make any sense, you have to understand what the vows meant. 00:07:28.540 |
Because today when we say vows, we naturally just think promises, right? 00:07:35.740 |
But in our culture, promises are just words, right? 00:07:40.120 |
You never go into business based upon somebody's promise. 00:07:43.180 |
I promise that 50% of a promise I'm going to give to you, right? 00:07:47.780 |
I promise that if you allow me to use the car, I'll bring it back safe and then if I 00:07:56.940 |
Where we live, you have to get into a contract and then you have to spell out what the promise 00:08:01.740 |
is and then these are the consequences and you have to give a deposit and if you break 00:08:06.240 |
this promise that you have a third party that's going to make sure that this happens, right? 00:08:15.120 |
So when the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus, when it talks about oath, we have to understand 00:08:21.900 |
it as beyond just how you and I use promises, right? 00:08:26.860 |
In the oral tradition, a vow was just as binding as a signed contract in our day, right? 00:08:37.220 |
So he's not just talking about somebody who just kind of said, "Hey, I promise I'm going 00:08:40.620 |
to do this," and it has much heavier weight and maybe equivalent to us signing a formal 00:08:47.660 |
contract, maybe a covenant between a husband and wife and then they signed a contract, 00:08:53.100 |
they filed it into the city and then they become legal, right? 00:08:58.380 |
And so that's what a vow was in the oral tradition. 00:09:01.500 |
It was a commitment that they made and they took that very, very seriously. 00:09:05.100 |
In fact, Deuteronomy 23, 21 to 23, it says, "When you make a vow to the Lord your God, 00:09:10.660 |
you shall not delay to pay it for it would be sin in you and the Lord your God will surely 00:09:16.400 |
It's not just somebody saying, "Hey, that guy made a promise and he's not faithful," 00:09:23.500 |
If you made a vow, you made a promise and you don't fulfill it, it was considered sin. 00:09:27.260 |
However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be a sin to you," right? 00:09:31.780 |
So much of what chapter 27 is talking about is voluntary vows that he makes. 00:09:37.540 |
And we'll talk about in what context these vows were made. 00:09:40.500 |
"You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips just as you have voluntarily 00:09:45.100 |
vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised." 00:09:47.500 |
So in other words, to take the vow seriously. 00:09:50.620 |
Don't flippantly say in your mouth that, "God, I'm going to do this," or, "I'm going to dedicate 00:09:55.180 |
this," because once you have done that, it's binding. 00:09:58.860 |
It's not like us just kind of flipping, say, "Hey, I'll do this. 00:10:01.020 |
If you do this for me, I'll be there," and then you break that promise. 00:10:02.980 |
It's like, "Oh, you know, I'll do it next time for sure," right? 00:10:09.060 |
Old Testament says, "If you make that promise, if you made that vow and you break it, it's 00:10:20.320 |
And that's the context in which chapter 27 is written. 00:10:30.700 |
When someone wanted to demonstrate his love for the Lord out of gratitude, and this is 00:10:34.500 |
directly linked to what we saw in chapter 26, right? 00:10:40.380 |
God's promises of blessing in obedience and God's promise of curse in disobedience, right? 00:10:48.500 |
So chapter 26 may bring God's judgment upon them because they didn't obey, and as a result 00:10:56.980 |
of that, maybe they pled with God, or maybe they were obedient and God allowed the rain 00:11:05.640 |
And as a result of that, a response to what God has done, they're giving an offering of 00:11:12.900 |
And so in that context, you say, "God, I thank you so much for what you did. 00:11:16.140 |
I'm going to dedicate myself to you for the next year," or, "I'm going to give my first-born 00:11:24.580 |
So a vow would have been made in that context of an abundance of gratitude in response to 00:11:33.180 |
Oftentimes, and this is probably the most common vows that people make, prayers to be 00:11:40.740 |
And we see examples of that, of Jacob in Genesis 28, where he pleads with God and he vows that 00:11:47.980 |
if God blesses him, that he was going to do this and that. 00:11:50.740 |
Remember Jephthah in Judges 11, that if God gives him victory, that he was going to dedicate 00:11:57.820 |
Hannah, praise to God, if you give me a son, I'll dedicate him to you. 00:12:02.140 |
Jonah, if you protect us from this disaster, that I'm going to repent and go back and do 00:12:08.640 |
So the most common vow was made was kind of a negotiating with God. 00:12:12.420 |
"God, I will do this if you do this for me," right? 00:12:16.060 |
That's probably the most common vow that we see. 00:12:18.660 |
And oftentimes, again, even today, people may pray that, "Lord, if you just let me get 00:12:27.260 |
If you let me get this job, I'm going to use this money to honor you. 00:12:31.220 |
If you allow this to happen, I'm going to do this." 00:12:33.740 |
And so you would make a vow, a promise that you're going to do that. 00:12:38.900 |
And you probably heard testimonies of people who came into ministry that way. 00:12:42.980 |
And the person that came to mind for me was Dawson Trotman. 00:12:52.500 |
And he made a vow like that because he got... 00:12:54.660 |
I forgot what the context was, but he was desperate and he prayed to God that, "If you 00:13:02.420 |
And then as a result of that, he gave his life to serve God. 00:13:04.900 |
And then he started this ministry called the Navigators, right? 00:13:08.820 |
And so that was the second, most common context in which a vow was made. 00:13:16.500 |
And this was a vow that, if you remember, Samson made when he was young. 00:13:22.980 |
It was to completely be detached from any kind of alcohol, right? 00:13:27.780 |
And then he lived with certain boundaries as a way of dedicating, asking for the Lord's 00:13:40.660 |
And this was a dedication of his whole life to be used by God in a certain way. 00:13:49.260 |
I have a feeling that he broke that Nazirite vow over and over again, right? 00:13:53.200 |
But at least that was a vow of the Nazirites. 00:13:58.740 |
These three reasons are not comprehensive, but these are the most common reasons why 00:14:02.900 |
an Old Testament Jew would have entered into a certain kind of vow. 00:14:08.300 |
And it is in this vow, he says, if you have made this vow, that vow is binding. 00:14:16.460 |
Under a covenant relationship with this holy God, you don't come to God flippantly and 00:14:20.340 |
say, "God, if you do this, I'm going to do this." 00:14:22.440 |
And then three months later, say, "Ah, you know how I am." 00:14:30.700 |
So, the whole thing about the book of Leviticus is recognizing who he is. 00:14:36.940 |
The very first offering that was given to God, they didn't follow his instruction, and 00:14:44.900 |
And what is the lesson that was taught to the nation of Israel? 00:14:49.360 |
You cannot just approach him any way you want. 00:14:53.020 |
And so in chapter 27, even in the promises that we make God, you don't flippantly make 00:14:59.780 |
God takes that seriously because he's a holy God. 00:15:04.020 |
And so he says, "When you have made these vows," right? 00:15:08.260 |
The purpose of this chapter is to give a person who made a rash vow or a difficult vow. 00:15:19.060 |
Someone who made a rash or a difficult vow that he is not able to fulfill, right? 00:15:30.060 |
God gave him an opportunity to redeem that vow. 00:15:32.360 |
He wasn't just going to say, "Okay, forget it. 00:15:42.620 |
Someone who's made a difficult vow who cannot fulfill it, and God's giving them an opportunity 00:15:53.740 |
So again, if you don't understand the context of this, it's like, "Wow, he's actually saying 00:15:58.420 |
that guy's worth $30, this guy's worth $50, that guy's worth $25." 00:16:07.560 |
You can see some modern feminist reading this and you thought women shouldn't teach publicly 00:16:15.020 |
Some of you guys give me blank looks like you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking 00:16:20.300 |
But for those of you who did read it and studied it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:16:27.460 |
Chapter 1 through 24 is in reference to the voluntary vow. 00:16:30.940 |
These are vows that were not required, that they made some rash vow or a difficult vow, 00:16:36.500 |
and God gives them an opportunity to redeem it. 00:16:40.340 |
So the laws on vowing people as holy to the Lord. 00:16:48.460 |
That you've taken a common object and you set it apart. 00:16:53.300 |
They didn't physically do it, but the moment you made that vow, that person became set 00:17:03.300 |
So it wasn't like, "Oh, he went through this ritual and then he went through the temple 00:17:08.020 |
and he was offered up, put up special clothes, and then he was separated." 00:17:10.980 |
He said, "The moment you made that vow, it was set apart for God. 00:17:15.300 |
He may not have physically gone there, but that belongs to God." 00:17:19.100 |
So somebody who makes this vow in verses 1-3, God allows one who made the difficult vows 00:17:34.560 |
He says you have to use the sanctuary shekels. 00:17:39.900 |
In other words, obviously the way that they counted money, it wasn't like today where 00:17:44.340 |
it's just print and then the government makes sure that it's genuine. 00:17:48.180 |
And as long as it's genuine, it's worth $5, $10, $20. 00:17:52.180 |
At that time, you can easily fool people by using false weights. 00:17:58.700 |
So the way that oftentimes in the Bible, we're talking about dishonest weights, that instead 00:18:03.980 |
of five pounds, you would use four pounds or eight pounds, and then you can cheat somebody 00:18:08.900 |
out of a pound or two by using false weights. 00:18:11.660 |
But in order to make sure that that doesn't happen, he says that the price needs to be 00:18:15.900 |
weighed by the weights that was held at the tabernacle. 00:18:23.700 |
Just to give you an idea of what a shekel is, a shekel is equivalent to a month's income 00:18:36.420 |
Some rich people made more than that, poor people made less than that. 00:18:39.580 |
But on the average, an average worker's income, a month's income, was one shekel. 00:18:45.660 |
So based on that, this is the redemption value of somebody who makes this vow, and in order 00:18:57.400 |
So if you're between one month to five years, and you happen to be a male, it's five shekels, 00:19:07.740 |
If you happen to be a female, it was three months. 00:19:16.940 |
If you happen to be five to 20 years old, your value as a male is 20 shekels. 00:19:22.980 |
If you're a female, it's half that, 10 shekels. 00:19:27.460 |
If you're between the age of 20 and 60, you have the most value. 00:19:31.660 |
If you're a male, you're 50 shekels, which is equivalent to, what, about four, a little 00:19:40.180 |
So imagine just average income of somebody, right, in Orange County, right? 00:19:47.700 |
$400,000 or $100,000 or $50,000 or whatever your income level may be, it was four years 00:19:54.660 |
of that, would have been equivalent to one human being, right? 00:19:58.740 |
So an average income, somewhere around $300,000 to $400,000, right? 00:20:04.740 |
If you happen to be a male between the age of 20 and 60. 00:20:07.260 |
If you happen to be a female, it would have been about three, 30, so less than three years 00:20:14.860 |
If you're 60 and over, if you're a male, it would have been 15, or if you're a female, 00:20:21.500 |
Now, when you read that, again, if you don't understand the context and what he's doing 00:20:25.380 |
here, it just sounds like God's valuing people, that God looks at certain people and says, 00:20:30.020 |
"You're more valued because you're a male between the age of 20 and 60. 00:20:33.580 |
You're less valued because you're a female," right? 00:20:37.180 |
In fact, the valuation, what he's doing here in chapter 27 is very, very practical because 00:20:44.460 |
it's not based upon the intrinsic value of the individual. 00:20:48.040 |
We know all throughout scripture, God speaks against that, right? 00:20:52.060 |
In the kingdom of God, there is no male or female, and we know consistently all throughout 00:20:57.740 |
the Old Testament, New Testament, that God loves men, women, especially those who are 00:21:09.660 |
The value of the ages and gender was directly related to the ability to labor in the fields, 00:21:14.700 |
how much they are able to produce by their labor. 00:21:17.900 |
So if you're an infant between the age of one and five, you have to invest many years 00:21:22.100 |
of taking care of that child before he's able to produce anything. 00:21:29.340 |
So if a male dedicated himself at the age of 20, saying that, "I belong to the Lord," 00:21:35.300 |
that male is able to go out to the field and do hard labor and is able to produce a certain 00:21:39.700 |
amount of income because it's strictly based upon a physical labor, right? 00:21:44.540 |
There's no intelligence, there's no education, like none of that is involved. 00:21:48.140 |
It's just strictly you go out to the field and how many cows can you direct, like how 00:21:54.340 |
big of jars can you bring back home, how much water can you pull and bring back home. 00:21:59.540 |
So it was all strictly based upon how much you can produce through physical labor, right? 00:22:05.780 |
Because it was directly linked to the vow that that person made. 00:22:08.460 |
So if that person is, that if he kept his vow, was able to produce this much, he's 00:22:14.740 |
valued that much, that much must be compensated. 00:22:19.700 |
So he's not necessarily saying intrinsically male have more value and women don't have 00:22:24.860 |
He's talking about financially what they're able to produce, right? 00:22:30.180 |
If a person was too poor to pay the shekels, the priest would assess what he is able to 00:22:37.860 |
So again, think about if God was just being a chauvinist and saying like, "Male are 00:22:43.500 |
much more valued to me than females," why does he even care about the poor, right? 00:22:55.260 |
You made a $80,000 commitment, so you need to compensate $80,000 worth. 00:23:03.660 |
He's giving opportunity for them to redeem a vow that they made that for whatever the 00:23:07.540 |
reason they could not keep, so this is what you do, this is how much you have to pay. 00:23:12.020 |
The second section, within that section, if you, that was all valuation for humans versus 00:23:21.100 |
9-13, these are vows that they made for the animals that they gave, right? 00:23:28.820 |
If the animal's vows were ceremonially clean, it is not allowed to be exchanged with another 00:23:32.580 |
animal that is unclean because it wouldn't be the same amount. 00:23:39.420 |
So this prevented someone from regretting the vows they've made and giving God what 00:23:45.640 |
So the clean animal would have been worth a lot more than the unclean animal, right? 00:23:54.720 |
So you can't make a vow and say, "You know what? 00:23:56.640 |
I'm going to give you a year," and then after your emotions die down, he's like, "Maybe 00:24:11.280 |
It's the Lord's, even though you didn't give it to him yet. 00:24:14.680 |
So he says, "Therefore, if you renege on that, you're stealing from God." 00:24:27.080 |
There's no stage one, there's no stage two, there's no stage three. 00:24:29.960 |
Once the vow is made, it's the Lord's, right? 00:24:37.440 |
There are no level one Christian, level two Christian, level three Christian. 00:24:40.520 |
There are no people who are of greater value to our Heavenly Father because you're doing 00:24:47.520 |
more things for God or maybe you have a position in the church. 00:24:51.160 |
There's every single child of God is equally valued to the Father. 00:24:56.460 |
Ask any parent who has multiple children, right? 00:25:00.240 |
Every single one of them are precious to them. 00:25:02.400 |
And in the same way, so are everyone else, right? 00:25:08.400 |
So once we make the vow, it's the Lord's, right? 00:25:18.040 |
In fact, in Malachi 1.14, one of the problems of the nation of Israel was they kept on doing 00:25:24.800 |
They would make a vow of one thing and then give him the cheaper version. 00:25:27.640 |
"Curse is the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished 00:25:34.060 |
animal to the Lord, for I am a great king," says the Lord of Hosts, "and my name is 00:25:39.000 |
In other words, remember he says previously, he says, "Would you do this for another 00:25:46.760 |
Would you give cheap offerings and try to swindle him? 00:25:52.040 |
In other words, because I've been gracious to you, right? 00:25:57.320 |
Instead of having greater honor and greater respect and greater reverence and greater 00:26:01.040 |
fear for him, but because he's been gracious, you take advantage of him. 00:26:05.400 |
And that's why the judgment is coming, right? 00:26:08.600 |
And that was one of the problems of the nation of Israel, because God's been gracious, 00:26:17.440 |
What king would tolerate what you are doing to me? 00:26:25.200 |
If the vowed animal was ceremonially unclean, it is to be rejected as an offering, but could 00:26:30.400 |
still be given to a tabernacle for the priest. 00:26:32.320 |
In other words, you can't give it to, you can't vow it for the purpose of sacrifice 00:26:39.120 |
But if you were to redeem it, you'd have to take that unclean animal and add a fifth. 00:26:45.840 |
If you damage someone else's good or stole by accident, that you have to give that back 00:26:51.640 |
So if somebody made a vow of an animal and you wanted to redeem it back, and I kept on 00:26:57.120 |
thinking in what context would somebody offer up an animal and decide, "You know, I'm going 00:27:01.400 |
to save this animal and give the worth of that animal plus a fifth." 00:27:05.640 |
You'd have to be really attached to that sheep. 00:27:10.880 |
I don't know what context, but he says if you choose to do that for whatever the context 00:27:24.680 |
I can't think of a specific example or even an imaginary context where somebody would 00:27:31.600 |
be willing to pay the extra fifth to redeem an animal that you were going to slaughter 00:27:36.720 |
Anyway, that was just kind of a side thinking. 00:27:39.000 |
I just couldn't figure this out, but it's in here. 00:27:44.440 |
If the one who vowed chose to redeem the animal, I already said that, add a fifth to the price 00:28:04.680 |
If you made a vow, "Lord, if you answer my prayer, I'm going to give you this house," 00:28:09.200 |
he said, "If the house that was dedicated was to be redeemed, the priest would need 00:28:16.640 |
So the priest functioned as a realtor or a—what do you call it? 00:28:23.880 |
So he would function as an appraiser and appraise the property and then say it's worth $40,000, 00:28:30.760 |
and then you would add another fifth to that. 00:28:37.480 |
Maybe there's something attached to this home. 00:28:39.760 |
Maybe your parents lived there for generations. 00:28:41.840 |
Whatever the reason, if you made a difficult vow and you need to redeem it, he says, "You 00:28:59.240 |
Since priests did not have time to care for land dedicated as holy, the owners retained 00:29:03.600 |
control of it until the year of Jubilee and made a living from it. 00:29:07.320 |
Ideally, they would redeem the land before the Jubilee, paying the price that held as 00:29:12.120 |
of that day they had dedicated it and adding a fifth. 00:29:16.840 |
If you dedicated the land and if you wanted to redeem it, and then if you had—that's 00:29:24.080 |
If they failed to redeem it or if they leased it during the time, they forfeited it and 00:29:29.760 |
And all of these things, you're probably not going to remember. 00:29:32.080 |
All of this is once you've dedicated it, it's the Lord's. 00:29:39.880 |
So I'm going to just kind of go through it quickly. 00:29:43.880 |
Chapter 25 to 34 is talking about non-voluntary offerings, non-redeemable people or objects. 00:29:54.120 |
These are things that if you've made a vow or that you cannot redeem it or you can't 00:30:04.040 |
And the reason mainly is because it already belongs to the Lord. 00:30:07.960 |
First among the animals were not to be consecrated since it belonged to the Lord already, verse 00:30:14.040 |
So you can't vow to the Lord, "Lord, I vow, I tithe to you." 00:30:19.760 |
That's already a given because that was commanded. 00:30:26.600 |
"Lord, if you would just answer my prayers, I will obey you." 00:30:30.960 |
No, I'm not going to answer your prayer and you're going to obey me because I told you 00:30:38.560 |
That's not something that you'd negotiate with because it's already the Lord's. 00:30:43.320 |
You don't negotiate like, "If you just, you know, and then I'll obey you." 00:30:51.520 |
You can't make these vows to God with what God already commanded you to do. 00:30:57.920 |
Think about how often as Christians we thought, "I will follow you if you just..." 00:31:07.040 |
He said, "If you abide in my words and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish 00:31:12.280 |
Your very prayers begin with, "I'm not following you, but if you do me a favor, I'll follow 00:31:20.640 |
God already said he's not going to answer you, right? 00:31:23.680 |
So he's saying these are not things that you can negotiate with because they already belong 00:31:31.760 |
If it is an unclean animal, it can be redeemed after adding fifth to the agreed value. 00:31:50.400 |
Korban was the name that was used in the Old Testament to describe an object, a person, 00:31:55.200 |
a city, a tribe, whatever it was that God declared to be under the judgment of God. 00:32:01.840 |
So you can't declare something and say, "I'm going to offer it up to you because it's already 00:32:10.240 |
All the tithes of the land cannot be redeemed since it is already the Lord's. 00:32:15.600 |
But if you were tithing, let's say, you know, like a tenth of your crop, and for whatever 00:32:23.760 |
the reason, you wanted to keep the crop but you still wanted to give the tenth, whatever 00:32:28.080 |
it is that you had vowed, you have to give the amount for that and add a fifth. 00:32:38.640 |
So he gave an option to be able to switch that out monetarily. 00:32:51.320 |
Remember, when we study the book of Leviticus, you have to ask the question, "Why is this 00:33:03.080 |
Because everything from chapter 1 to chapter 27 ultimately kind of give a platform for 00:33:09.000 |
the crucifixion of Christ and what he did, the shedding of blood, the clean and unclean, 00:33:13.760 |
God's righteous judgment, and then his grace, all of it, everything that we know of the 00:33:17.480 |
gospel is founded upon what God did through the book of Leviticus. 00:33:31.200 |
Let me go over a few verses, just to kind of give you a background of what we see in 00:33:38.660 |
In Matthew 23, 16, Jesus says, "Woe to you, blind guys, who say, 'Whoever swears by the 00:33:42.960 |
temple, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.'" 00:33:47.080 |
So he's basically calling them out because they were making vows like they were doing 00:33:54.160 |
in the Old Testament, but they valued the gold over the temple. 00:33:58.720 |
In other words, that reveals their heart, what they thought about God versus what they 00:34:06.840 |
So if you vowed the gold, no one wants to, you know, like, "Oh, that's valuable." 00:34:11.400 |
But the temple doesn't have that kind of value. 00:34:15.080 |
The temple, in God's eyes, has much more value than the gold that it's made out of. 00:34:19.480 |
So he rebukes them that already, even in the way that you vow, it reveals what you value. 00:34:26.960 |
James 5, 12, it says, "But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth 00:34:34.880 |
or with any other oath, but you are yes, be yes, and no, be no, so that you may not fall 00:34:40.440 |
So in other words, like, if you have to constantly say, "I swear," right, because it's a common 00:34:47.680 |
practice for you to say things that you don't mean. 00:34:49.680 |
You make promises, appointments, and you break it like that. 00:34:54.840 |
So after a while, your words don't mean anything. 00:34:58.800 |
And you're frustrated that people don't take you serious because your words don't mean 00:35:05.040 |
You say things flippantly, you do it, you don't do it, and you break it, and you say 00:35:09.120 |
one thing, and then you do another, and he says, "Don't make that a promise. 00:35:15.320 |
In other words, think before you speak, before you make promises, before you make appointments, 00:35:22.480 |
before you enter into any kind of agreement, right? 00:35:29.720 |
Think about how many people, like, again, the way that the gospel is preached, you know, 00:35:34.160 |
it's just like, "Hey, everybody, give Jesus a try. 00:35:45.920 |
You know, the worst case scenario, you gain some friends, you know, and you hang out with 00:35:58.560 |
So sometimes the way that the gospel is preached, it kind of takes away any kind of cost involved. 00:36:05.640 |
So people enter into this covenant relationship with God flippantly. 00:36:09.640 |
So because they entered it flippantly, what happens? 00:36:15.360 |
When things get hard, when, you know, people disappoint you or the church doesn't act the 00:36:19.420 |
way that you think they ought to act, and it's like, "Okay, I'm gone." 00:36:23.620 |
And part of the reason why there's so many people backsliding is because the way that 00:36:27.240 |
they came into the kingdom to begin with, right? 00:36:32.460 |
So he's saying, "Let your yes be yes and no be no." 00:36:36.800 |
Like when you say you believe, make sure you mean that, right? 00:36:45.560 |
Make sure you believe that because saying that you believe comes with consequences. 00:36:51.120 |
You can't say that you believe the building is burning down and then just sit there and 00:36:55.880 |
do nothing and then get offended if somebody says, "Maybe you don't believe and that's 00:37:13.980 |
If you're going to say you have faith, make sure you actually have faith because many 00:37:17.780 |
people will enter into the kingdom professing to know God, but they don't have faith in 00:37:26.360 |
So it's a warning against taking flippant vows. 00:37:30.660 |
In Matthew, Jesus goes even further and says, "And again, you have heard in the ancient 00:37:35.280 |
that you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. 00:37:38.400 |
But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or 00:37:43.060 |
by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city 00:37:48.300 |
Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but 00:37:58.420 |
How many of you had conversations with somebody that may have read this or studied this or 00:38:03.980 |
looked at this and said, "Therefore, God doesn't want us to get into any kind of contract," 00:38:13.180 |
I've had somebody ask me about that because where is the most common place where people 00:38:26.580 |
Every wedding that I've done, two people stand there and they make vows. 00:38:39.540 |
If you look in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 18, verse 18, and Acts chapter 21, verse 23, 00:38:50.500 |
So you can explain that and say, "Oh, maybe he was in between, he didn't fully understand, 00:38:54.060 |
he was a young Christian," but we see examples of people making vows. 00:38:59.380 |
I do not think that this is a prohibition against wedding vows. 00:39:02.940 |
I do not think that this is a prohibition against entering into any kind of public contract, 00:39:09.020 |
I don't think God got rid of any kind of contract. 00:39:12.380 |
Christians are not allowed to enter any kind of vows or contract from this point on. 00:39:17.980 |
He was specifically arguing against a culture where they made rash vows for what purpose? 00:39:30.780 |
So they were entering into contracts with no intention to fulfill it or making promises 00:39:36.180 |
that they don't have the ability to fulfill, right? 00:39:40.300 |
Then even if they made the vow, they would keep breaking it over and over again. 00:39:43.660 |
He says, "Don't even make vows because you don't understand who you are," right? 00:39:47.900 |
So this is not a prohibition against entering into a vow or any kind of particular contract. 00:39:52.300 |
He's talking about the condition of that person, condition of that generation that 00:39:58.940 |
was using the vows flippantly for personal gain, right? 00:40:03.940 |
Now what does this have to do with what we're talking about? 00:40:08.540 |
Let me take four things that we should get out of this. 00:40:12.940 |
One, it taught the nation of Israel to take vows seriously. 00:40:20.140 |
That you don't come to God and make flippant promises. 00:40:24.060 |
You don't enter into a covenant with God and then exit the covenant and then enter the 00:40:28.180 |
covenant and then exit the covenant at your leisure, right? 00:40:33.940 |
That's why in a marriage vow it says, "What God has put together, let no man separate." 00:40:39.300 |
You don't have the ability to do that, right? 00:40:43.100 |
So in other words, take vows seriously because God takes it seriously. 00:40:47.180 |
That's the first thing that it taught the nation of Israel. 00:40:49.940 |
God didn't just forget about it and just kind of let it be. 00:40:54.500 |
If you can't physically do it, there needs to be compensation for that, right? 00:41:03.540 |
Second thing is, and again, I don't have slides up here for that. 00:41:06.660 |
Man is sinful and is unable to keep the oath that he makes. 00:41:14.460 |
So chapter 27 already assumes that Israel was going to say things that they couldn't 00:41:22.060 |
So God is giving an opportunity to redeem that, right? 00:41:26.900 |
You made a rash vow and say, "No, I'm going to give my life to serve the Lord," and then 00:41:30.020 |
you can't do it and he said, "Okay, now you're going to have to compensate for that." 00:41:32.660 |
So take it seriously, but there's an assumption that a sinful man oftentimes is not going 00:41:42.300 |
It doesn't mean that God's okay with it, but there's an assumption that the man does not 00:41:47.820 |
have the ability to be faithful to all his vows, right? 00:41:52.660 |
Third, only God is able to keep these vows, right? 00:41:59.060 |
And that's why he demands that we take our vows seriously because God takes his vows 00:42:09.380 |
Fourthly, only God can redeem us from a broken vow. 00:42:18.400 |
Because he just told the nation of Israel in chapter 26 that if you enter this covenant 00:42:23.740 |
with me and if you obey me, here's the blessing, but if you disobey me, here's all the curses. 00:42:28.820 |
Remember, the curses outnumber by double in Deuteronomy by four times? 00:42:36.260 |
And he said, so basically, Israel's history is a constant breaking of their covenant with 00:42:42.500 |
So by the time we get to the end of Malachi, they have curses upon curses, vows upon vows 00:42:47.980 |
that they've broken in which they stand condemned under this weight, right? 00:42:53.920 |
And that's why Paul starts in Romans chapter 1, "He who is under the law will be judged 00:43:00.920 |
He who is not under the law will be judged outside the law. 00:43:08.120 |
The nation of Israel was under the law to reveal to them the utter sinfulness of their 00:43:16.520 |
So the whole point of Leviticus is how to have a relationship with this holy God. 00:43:23.320 |
And it ends with an assumption that Israel is going to break this vow, right? 00:43:32.840 |
If you want to have a relationship with me, there has to be blood sacrifice. 00:43:43.920 |
And then chapter 27 ends with, you're going to break these vows and God's going to give 00:43:55.000 |
You understand what chapter, Leviticus ends with chapter 27? 00:43:58.920 |
It ends with redemption despite the sin of man. 00:44:05.400 |
Numbers 23, 19, it says, "God is not man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he 00:44:12.200 |
Or has he spoken and will he not make it good?" 00:44:16.440 |
God says it and he's the only one who can fulfill it. 00:44:18.920 |
And then the fulfillment of that in 1 Peter 1, 18-19, what he says in Genesis chapter 00:44:24.640 |
3, that I will send the seed of the woman who's going to crush the head of the Satan. 00:44:37.320 |
Knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold. 00:44:45.640 |
You couldn't redeem with silver or gold man's souls, right? 00:44:54.800 |
With your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood 00:44:57.960 |
as a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 00:45:04.820 |
Only Christ can redeem us from broken vows, broken promises. 00:45:09.920 |
And that's what ultimately Leviticus is ultimately about. 00:45:14.000 |
How do we have a relationship with the Holy God? 00:45:16.840 |
Only someone who has been declared holy in his presence can be in his presence. 00:45:21.220 |
But the problem is we can't attain that holiness no matter how determined we are. 00:45:35.340 |
And as a result of that, God gives us redemption. 00:45:44.240 |
So if you don't understand the context, you can be very offended by chapter 27, but if 00:45:48.320 |
you understand the whole context of the book of Leviticus and the larger context of the 00:45:52.560 |
redemptive history, I mean, Leviticus is a beautiful picture of Christ from beginning 00:46:00.960 |
And all of this, and the language that it uses, all of this is fulfilled in the New 00:46:05.840 |
I don't know about you, but the more I read the Bible, there is no way a human being wrote 00:46:13.280 |
There is nobody that could have been this smart. 00:46:17.720 |
And so if you're not meeting Christ in the scriptures, you're not meeting Christ. 00:46:28.240 |
Other people who met Christ telling you of what it was like. 00:46:31.640 |
I just came back from Hawaii, it's just not the same me telling you the story. 00:46:36.800 |
It's just not the same as you going there and seeing it yourself. 00:46:41.640 |
That's why if you do not prioritize your walk with God, and you think coming to church every 00:46:50.800 |
once in a while somehow fulfills that, or hanging around with other Christians, you're 00:46:58.480 |
There are tons of people who will walk into hell claiming to know Christ when they never 00:47:12.080 |
If you're going to say you have faith, make sure it's genuine faith, not just check off. 00:47:17.840 |
I went down like 20 years ago, I went down some altar call, and that kind of sealed the 00:47:29.880 |
We're sinful men who are not able to earn righteousness. 00:47:32.440 |
Do you understand that God and only God can fulfill the promises that he's made? 00:47:39.360 |
And that God and only God can redeem us from our own sins. 00:47:44.280 |
And hopefully that message will seep in so deep that it transforms your, not just what 00:48:03.200 |
That what makes you happy are the things of God. 00:48:07.880 |
So the things that you look forward to, not the vacations, not your retirement, and all 00:48:12.440 |
these things may be great, but they're superficial. 00:48:14.880 |
But it actually begins to transform your very desires so that what God wants for you is 00:48:22.200 |
And when those two things align, you have life abundant. 00:48:28.640 |
I came to give life and give this life abundantly. 00:48:30.760 |
This is what God wants, but then we want this, and that's where the frustration comes from. 00:48:34.560 |
But when we want what he desires for us, we have abundant life. 00:48:43.840 |
Every Christian has entered into a covenant with God to be a faithful follower of Jesus 00:48:48.080 |
How would you assess your oath of following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? 00:48:54.040 |
How does God's grace redeem us from our difficult vows affect the way you live your life? 00:49:01.920 |
Where you say, "Well, God's going to forgive me, and he forgives me every time." 00:49:06.920 |
So therefore, you don't see the weight of your sin. 00:49:10.440 |
You don't see the weight of your compromise, your lukewarmness. 00:49:13.680 |
You can be there year after year after year, but you just say, "Oh, God's gracious." 00:49:19.300 |
Or does that grace cause you to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness, wanting him 00:49:24.680 |
Because depending on how you respond to his grace, maybe a revelation of if you're really 00:49:33.080 |
Third, how seriously, and this is very practical and faithful, do you think you are keeping 00:49:39.280 |
Some of you guys may have forgotten about that. 00:49:43.920 |
That tenfold covenant is not unique to Berean, even though we use the name Berean. 00:49:47.280 |
If you look at the tenfold covenant of our church, these are all things that the Bible 00:49:53.720 |
Taking the church, prayer, lordship of Christ, financial stewardship, all that stuff is not 00:50:02.320 |
We just decided to highlight it, put it as a covenant to make sure for the purpose of 00:50:07.760 |
So third question is, again, when we think about vows and living according to what we 00:50:12.960 |
promise, are we being faithful to those vows? 00:50:17.000 |
Take a picture of this, and then I'm going to put up the tenfold covenant so that you 00:50:21.560 |
can have that as a reference to look at in your discussion time. 00:50:29.280 |
If you have one of those flip phones, ask somebody. 00:50:33.360 |
There's like a few people in our church who still have that, so if you don't, you can 00:50:43.920 |
So let me pray for us, and then I'll have you guys get into your small group. 00:50:51.800 |
We thank you for our brothers and sisters, where we can run this race together. 00:50:55.720 |
I pray, Father God, that as you've implanted so much treasure, Lord God, in this book, 00:51:05.320 |
We pray for hearts, Lord God, that is softened. 00:51:08.640 |
As you are the potter and we are the clay, we truly want to be molded according to what 00:51:13.960 |
I pray that you will bless our small group time, help us to be vulnerable and honest, 00:51:18.840 |
that in our weakness, Lord, that we do not try to be somebody that we're not. 00:51:23.120 |
Help us to seek each other, to lean on one another, to be gracious with one another, 00:51:28.080 |
to speak the truth in love, that we will never be comfortable in our sins, but gracious with 00:51:34.440 |
So I pray for your blessing, especially for the leaders, Lord God, that you would help