The Blood Bridges the Gap

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Good morning. Good morning. Worship was just so great. As Friday. Yes.

Seal us seal us in. What a great theme you wove together during worship.

Blood?

Yeah, I was gonna ask them if they were like picking up what you were putting down but Sure. Yeah, way to way to way to help them out. Here we are in the TMC. So good see all of you this morning. We get to service is so nice.

We get to do it twice.

Did feel warm or feel good? Good.

Yeah, feels good. Good. Yeah, feels good.

Renee, work.

Wait till the. Wait till the preaching starts. That'll really heat things up. Alright. So, here we are in a series of conversations that we've been talking about.

It's great to see so many faces that have been with us consistently for the last few weeks. So, you know, where where we're going and what we're talking about. The title of the conversation that we've been having last few weeks is called two men enter. One man leaves, and it's from one of the first movies eighties movies that I remember, Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. And they they solve all of their problems in the Thunderdome.

And the way that it works is two men enter, fight it out, much like we saw in the Oval Office this week. One man leaves without extra billions of dollars for to continue fighting his war. But, anyways

Great.

I just I just said six political things in my mind and none of them came out of my mouth. See me after. So, we have been in the amazing, incredible, fascinating book of Leviticus and we are finding the beauty of relationship with the lord through the book of Leviticus and if you're like me, the book of Leviticus is monotonous. It's kind of hard to understand. It seems so culturally irrelevant to our modern lifestyles that, like, if there was ever a book to trim, maybe it would be Leviticus or reading the bible.

If you're reading the bible one in one year, you're like, well, I mean, after the first chapter, you're like, alright, let's just skip to the next book but there's a lot of amazing things in the book of Leviticus and as we started this series of conversations, I said that I have two goals for these conversations. Number one, I want you to see and encounter the beautiful and terrifying experience of entering the combat arena with Jesus. Two men enter, one man leaves. And we're gonna talk more about, like, that that combat aspect. And then number two, I want you to see the beauty of the book of Leviticus and the incredible links that God goes through to have a relationship with us.

So the metaphor that we've been using is the Thunderdome, and the Thunderdome represents our will with every thought, emotion, choice that we have, every crossroads that we come to. The exercise of our will is like the Thunderdome. We step into that combat arena with Jesus and one person is going to win and one person is going to die. Either you win and Jesus dies or Jesus wins and you die. And if you're like, what?

That's that's binary. That's extreme. Like, why do you why do you have to say it like that? I'm not trying to sensationalize the truth. Remember where at least I remember where this whole series came from.

We were reading in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus does these several incredible things and then he teaches the people that were listening. Here's why we say this and here's why we're talking about these things. The Pharisees went out and what did they do? They plotted to kill him.

Woah. That's extreme. Far beyond shadow banning, they plotted to kill him. And then we talked about how our our hearts, the human heart is really no different. Because when we are confronted and when we realize that in the arena of our will, that if our will is to survive, it comes at the expense of Jesus' life and I will say, influence in our life.

Does that make sense? When two men enter, one man leaves. The other option is for us to die, For for us to lay down our life and say, Jesus. You know best. I've surrendered my life to you.

That's why I talk a lot of times about Jesus being the leader of your life instead of like, are you saved? Like, have you been born again? Those are great theologically accurate terms. But or or when somebody says Jesus is my personal lord and savior. That's great.

Accurate. Wonderful. But I think it helps our modern minds for the rubber to meet the road when we say, is Jesus the leader of your life? Is he the boss of your life? Is he your boss?

When he tells you to send an email, it oh, never mind. It was cat that's egging me on. Report like five things you did this last week. If your boss sends you an Email, you gotta reply, right? So, who is the leader of your life?

Who is the boss of your life? Is it you? And you're like, you you do Jesus a favor by like obeying him occasionally or taking time out of your Sunday to come and and be in this cozy environment. Does is Jesus like, oh my gosh, you thought of me. I'm so flattered.

Wow. Like, you're doing him a favor? This is this is literally like mortal combat. Jesus takes it very seriously. Two men enter, but one man leaves.

Who is going to exit the arena alive having won the battle. One cool thing about Jesus, he doesn't mind the grappling and the wrestling. He does. He doesn't mind that. And I'm trying to think of a verse that supports what I just said.

It's what I know about Jesus. Jacob. Yes. Jacob wrestling with the angel all night. Jesus is walking along with his disciples and they just had a they kinda got run out of town on the rails and the two brothers, the sons of Thunder, say, lord, should we call down fire on this town for treating you like a jerk?

He doesn't like, he doesn't beat them up. He doesn't, like, like Chastise. Chastise them. He teaches them. And so there's an element or an aspect grappling, sparring, wrestling with the Lord because he knows that we are human.

Now if you continue to wrestle with him over the same thing over and over and over and over again, he's like, come on now. How many times do I have to pin you to the mat before you surrender? He'll he he doesn't mind rolling on the mat. So what we've learned about Leviticus would put up here on the screen. This is what we talked about week one.

Leviticus is a divine blueprint for holiness, showing Israel how to create a sacred environment when where God can dwell with his people. That is a mouthful. And unless your pen writes really fast, maybe you wanna take a picture of it. Leviticus, the book of Leviticus, when we have the right set of glasses to look at the book of Leviticus, it helps us navigate and it gives us endurance as we read through the book of Leviticus. Okay, this is a blueprint.

This is a blueprint. This is a blueprint. I mean, I don't know anybody, maybe even architects, I think they get bored. Like, have you ever gotten blueprints for like, we're trying to build a garage apartment. We've got blueprints this thick page after page of all kinds of details and aspects of the construction.

And I think even architects are like, oh my gosh, like, get it. Nobody reads blueprints just for fun, but blueprints transmit valuable information. And so when we have the right glasses, the right frame of mind, when we look at Leviticus, it helps us have endurance and even enjoyment as we read the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is a divine blueprint for holiness, showing Israel how to create a sacred environment where God can dwell among his people. This is not on the screen, but we said this.

The main takeaway from the book of Leviticus is this for a life giving relationship with God. Something has to die. Lot of death, lot of blood in this book of Leviticus. In order for there to be a life giving relationship with the Lord, something has to die. Now you can have a casual relationship.

You can have a distant relationship. You can have a fear based relationship. You can have a rule based relationship. You can have a relationship with the lord that was founded on your parents or the college ministry that you came from or the church that you just grew up attending back home. But if you want a life giving relationship, there needs to be an exchange.

Something has to die. And the book of Leviticus tells us that over and over and over for thick, scold people like me. Last week, we talked about how the God of how the god of the Bible is a consuming fire who will never compromise holiness for love. Anybody remember the the story that we read from the book of Leviticus last week? What was what was our kind of launching pad text last week?

It was a story. Most of Leviticus is prescriptive. Do this. Tell Aaron to do that. But we see a story in the book of Leviticus.

What happened in the story last week? I know you're like, I don't even remember what I had for breakfast. It's okay. What? What happened?

I'm gonna

buy the law for unauthorized fire.

Yes. Yes. So, that happens in Leviticus chapter 10. In Leviticus chapter nine, the end of Leviticus chapter nine, the temple or the tabernacle, the temporary tent dwelling place of the lord in the wilderness is all set up. Everything is ready to go.

Fire streaks down from heaven, consumes the sacrifice that's on the altar and everybody's like, yay. And they fall down to the face and they praise and worship God. Then literally just a few sentences later, that same fire that blesses the people breaks out and it kills two brothers, the sons of Aaron. That same fire. And so our takeaway from last week was the God of the Bible is a consuming fire who will never compromise holiness for love.

Well, I know Aaron really loved his two sons. Maybe I should give him a break. Well, I I I love these two guys. We just got him dressed up in all their priestly garbs. It is literally day one on the job.

Oh, I did I love them. You know, they just need more training. I could just coach them up a little bit. Any other expression than the breaking out of consuming fire would compromise the attribute of God's character of holiness, and he just won't do it. So today, week 37, it's only week three.

You people. Carla and Justin were staying at our house last night, and I was talking about week three. And she's like, you might be on week, like, five or six, but I just stopped saying what week we're on of the series after week three. This is legitimately week three. And if you wanna if you're taking notes at the title at the top of your notes, you can write the title of the conversation that we're gonna have today.

Just two simple words, the blood. We're gonna talk about the blood today. And we need to turn to the book of Leviticus chapter three. And do we have the mic for the room today? Is that plugged in?

Okay. Awesome. So, Leviticus chapter three and we're going to take turns reading verses one through 17. So, whoever would like to start us out, Remember, put your Leviticus glasses on. What are you supposed to be getting out of Leviticus?

Keep that in mind as we read 17 whole verses from the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter three, we're going to read verses one through 17. Alright. So, whoever would like to start us out, Adam has the mic so that all of our families that are watching the live stream will be able to hear you.

Yes.

It's titled The Fellowship Offering.

Okay. Yes.

If your offering is a fellowship offering and you offer an animal from, excuse me, from the herd, whether male or female, you are to present before the Lord an animal without defect. You are to lay your hand on the head of your offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then Aaron's sons, the priest shall splash the blood against the sides of the altar. From the fellowship offering, you are to bring a food offering to the Lord, the eternal organs and all the fat that is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins and the long lobe of the liver, which you will remove with the kidneys. Then Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar, on top of the burnt offering that is lying on the burning wood.

It is a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

Oh, good.

The smell of a good barbecue will even make the most staunch vegetarian be like, well, maybe maybe just this once. Okay. Keep going.

If you present an animal from the flock as a peace offering to the lord, it may be a male or a female, but it must have no defects. If you present a sheep as your offering, bring it to the Lord, lay your hand on its head, and slaughter it in front of the tabernacle. Aaron's sons will then splatter the sheep's blood against all the sides of the altar. The priest must be present. Oh, the priest must present the fat of this peace offering as a special gift to the Lord.

This includes the fat of the broad tail cut off near the backbone, all the fat around the internal organs, the two kidneys, and the fat around them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver. These must be removed with the kidneys and the priest will burn them on the altar. It is a special gift of food presented to the lord.

So So specific.

Yes. Very specific.

I'm actually excited about this next part. If your offering is a goat, you are to present it before the lord. Lay your hand on its head and slaughter it in front of the tent of meeting. Then Aaron's son shall splash its blood against all the sides of the altar. From what you offer, you are to present this food offering to the lord.

The internal organs and all the fat that's connected to them. Both the kidneys with the fat on them near the loins and the long lobe of the liver, which you will remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the lord's. That gives me Oh my fats lords too.

Let's that. Let's pray into that.

Oh my gosh. That's awesome.

This is a lasting ordinance for generations to come. Wherever you live, you must not eat any fat or any blood.

I really do want this to be a conversation today. So if you have questions, comments, or connections, if you just raise your hand, we'll get that mic to you so that you can participate. And Ellie has a contribution right over here. So this is how we roll with our format here at Tribe. So what do you have?

Hey. So I just kind of wanted to make that connection, I guess. And correct me if I'm wrong. Liver contains toxins. Mhmm.

So I think he's specifically picking the liver to pull the toxins and burn them away and Cool. That's all I got.

Okay. I'll take it. And the long lobe of the liver. These must be removed with the kidneys. The priest will burn them on the altar.

It's a special gift of food presented to the Lord. I like it. I like it. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to dive into one particular aspect of the blood sacrifice.

Now I don't see anybody here that is, like, brand new first time to church. If only you had brought your lost friend today. Welcome to church. Welcome to tribe as we talk about blood sacrifice. And here's here's the idea that that comes in my mind.

I did not I I spared you from a a video clip of of me as a child growing up in the eighties. Well, not me as a child growing up in the eighties. You might have enjoyed seeing that. But what comes to my mind as a child growing up in the eighties is of Indiana Jones in the temple of doom. K.

So now yeah. Now now now we're all on the same page. Now we've all connected with the conversation today as that weird pagan priest is like offering up a a human sacrifice. And here's what so many people, especially as they read Leviticus, whether you're not a Christian or you are a Christian and you're like, you kind of like like skip over the book of Leviticus. It's it's very hard not it's very hard for our imaginations not to run some down down some weird road.

And most people think of an animal sacrifice as man's way of appeasing a bloodthirsty god. What is that old Tom Hanks movie where he has to, like, jump into the volcano or something? Joe versus the volcano. And and and for thousands of years, when man was outside of the nation of Israel, was stuck in this pagan fear based appeasing of the gods so that they don't get vengeful and wrathful and just arbitrarily strike your crops with blight or kill your children or just cause a volcano to erupt and cover your entire city with ash. Like, there was so much fear that people would do anything to appease the gods.

I'll take an animal from my herd and sacrifice it and pour out its blood to just appease a god. And if it were really, really extreme, I would offer one of my children to the to the fires of the gods of Molech to appease the gods. Then we become Christian. But it's hard to let go of that paradigm that if God is holy and you are sinful, that makes god angry at you and in order for Jesus not to in order for god not to kill you, Jesus jumps in at the last second, gives his life to be killed by god so that you can live because he's angry. This isn't.

It's on.

It doesn't sound on. This doesn't exactly go with what you're saying, but I was gonna say it before and then I didn't and then my heart is pounding. So I'm just gonna say it. But this whole thing to me as I read this just points to Jesus because, like, what I see them doing is they're taking basically everything from the body and burning it and, like, but then saving the blood and sprinkling that around the altar to purify and that's what Jesus did. Like, he killed his body.

Like, he burnt his body, and that's gone, but he saved his blood to purify us.

I like it. And you're getting you're getting that was a great place to make that contribution because it gets us closer to the heart of what we're going what we're discussing today. The pagan world thinks of blood sacrifice or animal sacrifice as a way to appease the God. Like if the gods, if if I do this, then I won't be struck because the gods are angry at me. Maybe I'll have good crops this year.

And then we we tend to we tend to transfer that. We just bring that right into our relationship with god and church and the Bible and we have this mentality that god is angry and mad at us and it's only Jesus that steps in as the big brother to stop god from wielding his belt that he's just taken off and is gonna like whip us because we're so naughty and he hates us and and it couldn't be further from the truth. Good. Good. But here's what we're going to see today.

This is this is a a a challenge for me to be able to get you to be able to see this. It is the blood that gets us closer to god. And it's not in the way that you might think that the blood gets us closer to god. So this is what we're this is what we're gonna look at and we're gonna be right here in in Leviticus. So, when we look at Leviticus chapter three, I want us to look at the steps that have to happen, alright?

So, first of all, I don't think I have these on the screen. Just look at the text, you can write these down in your notes. The first thing that needs to happen is an animal with zero defect must be selected. Not the weakest of the herd, not the ugly, not the run, not the one that didn't get picked for kickball, but the best from the herd or the flock. Zero defect.

And the priest inspects the animal that has been brought for sacrifice. And in the book of Leviticus, there are there is some description on what must happen. You have to look at the teeth. You have to look at the gums. You have to pull back the wool to make sure there's no rash or anything.

You have to look at the hooves to make sure the hooves are aren't aren't split and deform. It has to be a perfect animal in order for the priest to accept it for the sacrifice. So number number one, select an animal with zero defect.

I

appreciate that contribution. Matt says, I find that impossible. That is so hard to fathom that you find a a perfect animal from your flocker for your herd.

They did not have to do that over and over again. I feel like Right. Happens over and over again. Yeah. It's not just in this one instance.

Am I wrong?

Woah. What a what a great what a great dilemma that god intentionally sets up. Let's say you mess up and you blow it. So there's different reasons for offering in a a sin offering. Either sins that you know you've committed.

Sometimes you like commit accidental sin that makes you unclean like like, you know, all different kinds of reasons, not sins of commission or even omission, but things that would make you unclean that require a sacrifice to be purified. Any animal that is sacrificed, it has to be without blemish or defect. So you mess up, you blow it, you find one, you go through the herd, you find it, you bring it to the priest. The priest may or may not accept it and you're like, okay, the priest accept that one and then the next week, you go and do the same thing. Now, I'll drink doves.

Yeah. Now you're in a pickle because you done brought the best from your flock. I mean, that really drives home the seriousness of violating the covenant. That'll make you think twice about the grace of god. Brian.

I just I think when you just said that, it also made me think about spiritually what's happening to you when you're sinning and continuing to sin and how it looks physically. Those people would be losing their the best of their flock over time if they just continued to sit in the same.

Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway.

And you usually use the best for your breeding stock for the next generate oh. Okay. So numb yeah.

Yes. So would we agree that most of the time or I guess I say most of the time that this is a younger animal? Whoo. Versus an older.

I think the there are laws that have been added to what we have here in the Bible that by the time Jesus's day during the days of Jesus, there were so much additional criteria. What they did was they call it adding fences around the law. So if this is the the the the corpus, the the body of the law. They would Pharisees would establish what they called fences so that you never even got close to, like, breaking the actual law. And in those fences that surround the law, there were lots of rules about, well, it has to be more than two years old, but younger than this.

It could have never been bred before. Its its foot could have never touched, like, it could have never gotten a scratch on it. Yeah. Yeah. So not brand new, not a calf.

Never mention of calves being sacrificed. So full grown heifer or whatever or bull. So here's the first thing that happens. Select an animal with zero defect. Got it?

Everybody say got it.

Got it.

Here's the second thing. Lay your hand on the animal's head. Now we do read this in in other places, but what do we imagine the laying of our hands symbolizes as we delay it on the head of that animal? Blessing. That we would bless that animal.

Alright, that's a that's definitely an idea. Oh, that we would have compassion for like, sorry, buddy. Let me just close your eyes real quick. There we go. So, that's what that's what we we we think of is that we are play, we are transferring our sin onto that animal because what's about to happen to that animal?

Gonna die.

It gonna die. Death. So there's one type of sacrifice where you do one hand. We see it here. The day of atonement.

Sometimes there's the double hand press. This is one hand that is laid on top of the animal's head. So number one, we have select an animal with zero defect. Everybody say got it?

Got it.

Number two, lay your hand on the animal's head. Got it? Here's the third thing that happens. It just says sacrifice the animal. We know that from history to be drawing a knife across the animal's throat, slicing both jugulars on either side of the neck.

It just says kill the animal. Got it?

Got it.

Got it. Okay. Well, let's go through. Select an animal with zero defect.

Got it. Yeah.

Lay your hand on the animal's head. Got it. Kill by slicing the throat of the animal. Cut. Alright, here's the fourth thing that happens.

Sprinkle the blood of the animal on all sides of the altar. We see that in the text here. We just read it. Right? Got

it? Got it.

Okay. Okay. Alright. Alright. Let's let's review because it's it's important.

So number one, select an animal with zero defect. Mhmm. Got it. I need everybody to I I need to know that you're with me.

If we stay it strong, it won't make us do anything. I think. Let's try it.

Lay your hand on the animal's head. Slice and slice and kill slice the throat of the animal by killing it. Got it. Sprinkle the blood of the animal on all sides of the altar. Got it.

This is not sounding cultish. The call and response. No. Kill. Kill.

Okay.

Now bring the animal in.

Number 5. Number 5. Then various parts of the animal are placed on the altar. Got it? Got it.

Got it. Okay. So, Justin.

I think it's kind of I think it's kind of cool that from from the way that I read it, it sounds like the person who is bringing the sacrifice does the killing, and then it's the the priests who collect the blood and the various other parts and sprinkle it on the altar. Like, the killing happens outside the like, it happens outside the tabernacle and then they bring the animal in. But it's not like, oh, here's my animal priests, you know, do the whole thing. Like, the the owner of that animal has to do the killing.

So that is a a good question about who administers the slicing. There's so much slicing of animals' throats then then kill the animal. There's so much of that. I'm interested to know if in any anywhere in Leviticus, it's says actually who does it. My understanding is that the person lays their hand or hands on the animal's head, and it is the priest who draws the knife across the animal's throat.

But imagine if you had to do it and you were a little squeamish.

Do you see it somewhere, Justin? Is there?

I mean, it just says Yeah. He shall offer it without blemish before the Lord, and he shall lay lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw the blood

against the

sides of the altar. Aaron's sons shall burn the lobe of the liver on the altar. Yeah. But and I but I think you're right. I think maybe there are there's other times that it's the priests who are doing Interesting.

It does say a leader when a leader sins

unintentionally, unintentionally, he he slips slips to the go. Door. Right. Right. Right.

You gonna say something, Adam?

Yeah. Was just gonna say, it's like the modern day for comparisons. Like, we bring our confession to

him. Mhmm.

And we have to ask for forgiveness. Yeah. We have to do the action.

Yeah. I like it. So Imagine if I could be like, hey, will you go tell the priest that I messed up? Will you go for me?

It's like in junior high when Julie Rathke would break up with my boyfriend for me.

It's do you need the mic for that? No. Here's a note.

That's a real junior I think. They see what

they come in their life.

Oh, yeah. Oh, no. I'm done for. We had an amazing six days at recess.

We never once spoke in

person. Yeah.

Alright. So here's the deeper meaning. Here's the deeper meaning. So we talk about this idea of, like, we transfer our sins onto the animal. The animal pays the price by giving its life.

And so so once we take the the pure animal, we lay our hands on it, transfer our sins to the pure animal. Is that animal now clean or defiled? Defiled. It dies. Right?

But Got then what happens to the blood of that defiled animal? It gets sprinkled where? On the altar. Is the altar holy or is the altar defiled? Holy.

The altar is holy. So now, let's think about this. If our if we're transferring our sin onto the head of that animal, it then surrenders its life. It was blameless, and now it carries my sin or defilement. Why are you sprinkling the blood of that defiled animal on the altar?

This is a great place to go. This is this is very, very this is this is important. This is important. Here's the deeper meaning. The laying on of hands in this instance of the sacrifice remember I said we're just gonna look at one aspect of of blood sacrifice.

The laying on of hands is actually the transmission of essence. My essence being placed upon that animal by the laying on of my hands. Essentially, it's to appoint a representative. I am appointing this animal as my representative, and it is symbolized through the laying on of hands. And there's great scriptural reference for that.

Back in numbers 27 verse 18 through 20. So just before Moses commissions Joshua as he's commissioning Joshua to go to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land, Moses lays his hands on the head of Joshua. And the Bible says something to the effect of the same spirit that was on Moses now came onto Joshua, and the people followed Joshua like they followed Moses. And Joshua was the one who led the people into the promised land. It's where we get our New Testament laying on of hands.

Numbers eighteen twenty through 20. So number one so so number one, the laying on of hands is a symbolic of appointing a representative. Now, the animal without defect. Okay. This is this is worth turning to.

Psalms 15. And I will read the entire chapter of Psalms 15 to you now.

Are ready.

Which is also up here on the screen. Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? This is almost like what Matt Grabowski was saying. You had to find a perfect animal every time.

Only those who lead blameless, it's the same Hebrew word, lives, and who do what is right. Speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners and honor the faithful followers of the lord and keep their promise even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

Such people will stand forever. Back to verse one. Who may worship in your sanctuary? Who may enter your presence? Who may have an encounter with you with no mediary?

Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Only those who lead blameless lives who do what is right. When a person comes to make an animal sacrifice, There are times when the laying on of hands is for the transmission of sin. And we'll see that on the day of atonement with two different goats, and you can read about that later. I want you to think of the laying on of hands on this animal just before it surrenders its life is the the transmission of your essence into onto that animal.

That animal is blameless. That animal is allowed to or whoever is allowed to enter the sanctuary of the lord, who may enter into your presence. So now think of this. When your hand goes on the head of that animal, your essence is transmitted to that animal. That animal is pure and spotless and blameless.

Your life essentially now symbolically is in the blood of that animal. Leviticus 17. You can write the address down and come back and look at it in a moment. Leviticus seventeen eleven. For the life of the body is in the 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. The pagan world living the ancient pagan world living in fear of the gods was like, quick, we gotta do something. Start slicing the necks of everything around you to try to pour out the blood to the peace like, what what could we do? But here's what god says.

God says, I am the one. We didn't we didn't think of this as a way to like earn our way into right standing with God. God says, I am the one I've created this. I don't care about whatever little fruity tooty stuff you come up with. It's ineffective.

This is this is how you are to approach a right relationship with me. I have given you the blood.

Yes.

I like what you were saying and I wanna remind us all that nothing that we see is random or just because. You know, every single ounce of the detail that seems daunting has a reason. And I don't know all of them. I haven't broken it all down, but I know like the lobe of the liver, which is weird. We don't we don't say that.

It sounds so gross. But I know that that was used in this time, like, for pagan worship. It was some kind of, like, divination ceremony that they would use. So it makes sense that God would have them burn that. Like, that's no good.

Burn it up. You know? And then the fat that was to be burned was the choicest part of the animal. And so it's like what we do with our tithe is like we give the best to God. You know, it doesn't make sense if you don't love the Lord.

Like, why would you give up your best lamb with no, spots or anything? Why would you because God deserves the best. And so every single detail, and I love that it shows the order of God, was for their good. Just for the one example of the liver, like, don't be like your pagan friends and do some kind of weird divination ceremony with that liver. It needs to be ashes and it needs to be out of the city.

Like, all of it was for the for their good and had purpose. And so I liken that to today too, just the character and the nature of God has not changed. Everything that he asked us to do is for a purpose and for our good. And so that's where that we need to really hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. But sometimes I feel like he asks us to do I know he does.

He asks us to do stuff that doesn't make a ton of sense right away, but it's that relational equity that we have with him when we obey right away. We're like, I don't know why we're burning the liver, but we're doing it. And then God's like, you can know or not know. Just trust me. I don't know why we're doing this.

You cannot know or know. Just trust me. But I I love the comparison of not only in this day for the Israelites and for their sin before the cross, but an but a both and application for us today of God's character and his nature has never changed. Yes. How he has order and it's for our good.

I just love that about about him.

It is it is for a purpose. And god says, I have given you the blood for the purpose. We have to put these pieces together, but it's for the purpose of coming close to me. The altar, the blood is then sprinkled on all four sides of the altar. Imagine a hot barbecue grill and you splash blood on it, sizzles, the smoke rises, and the vivid picture was that as the smoke ascends, that it would enter into the presence of God.

God did not create animal sacrifice just to keep the lid on his anger. I'm so mad at you. I'll barely tolerate you if you keep killing these animals so that I don't kill you. That is not it at all. He wants intimacy with us, but he will not compromise his holiness.

That's why he says, I have given you the blood so that we can have intimate relationship with one another. Your essence must be transmitted to this animal by the laying on of hands. Its life is given so that the blood, now the essence of your life, gets to go to the altar and ascend. The same thing happens on the day of atonement in Leviticus 16. But one time a year, you don't need to turn there.

One time a year, the blood would go through the veil into the most holy place. The holy of holies is what the Bible calls it, and it would be sprinkled on the mercy seat. One day a year, the essence of man would get to go right in, and that was only one day a year. And I know that you're already making hyperlinks in your brain about the dividing wall of hostility. And when Jesus was crucified, the temp the curtain the curtain in the temple was torn in two.

But we see shadows and glimpses of that here in the book of Leviticus. One Bible scholar wrote this. I think I have this quote up here. So through this animal, in the surrender of its life, I, through it, get to go into the tent. So what does this all mean?

Let's zoom out and look at the big picture. Two men enter, one man leaves. This is the last verse that we're going to turn to. First John four nine through 10. And I have it up here on the screen.

First John four nine through 10. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. Not that we loved god, tried to manufacture our own things, trying to earn his favor or or or should but this is all his design. But that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins, thus removing the the dividing wall of hostility.

The the ecclesiastical term is propitiation. To propitiate the wrath of god. Not to calm it, not to soothe it like, hey, go for a walk and like calm down. Like, you're, whoo, you're really heated up but to actually satisfy the wrath of God. So that now.

When he looks at us because of what Jesus has done, because we are washed, we have been drenched in love. Our our essence gets to have that close communion and fellowship with god and we see a beautiful picture of that played out here on the laying on of hands and the sprinkling of blood on the altar in the book of Leviticus. I think Suzanne's had it the best comment of the morning. Wow. Wow.

God gave man these methods so that we could be together with him. Oh, Lord, thank you for the blood. Thank you for the blood. Thank you that by a substance that if you're in the modern health care world, the the adage is if it's warm, wet, and not yours, you don't wanna touch it. Always do every time, every scenario.

Is it seen safe? And then we glove up. Because blood has a stigma to us but it means something very very different to the lord. Thank you, Lord, that you show us your great love for us and your desire to have intimate relationship with us through the book of Leviticus that our essence can be transferred onto this animal. The animal lays down its life and the blood of that animal is sprinkled on the altar where it sizzles and rises up symbolizing our close communion, a way that you've provided for us to have close communion to you, with you.

And your word says so many times over and over during the book of Leviticus, it is a pleasing aroma to the lord. Jesus, thank you that you long to have relationship with us. Let's just take a moment and let that sink in. Alright, just before you leave, on your way out the door downstairs, you'll see Lanisha. She has been working with our older elementary students and if you would like to get involved helping to pour into the lives of some of our older elementary students, she would love to get you trained up and engaged in working with older elementary students and so, on your way down, when you see Lanisha, be like, hey, talk to me about Tribe Kids and she would love to get you plugged in.

Would that be alright if I prayed for you this morning? Stand up. Lord, Lord Jesus, thank you for shedding of your blood so that we may have intimacy with you. I ask that you would drench your tribe family here this morning and those watching the livestream in your great love. God, we ask that you would use our lives like a song so that no matter where we are in the corporate world, out at the mountain, out in the backcountry, in the classroom, at the grocery store, and in Pearl Street that our lives would sing praises that we are drenched in love, that would impact a lost and dying world around us.

Thank you for your blood. God, I command a blessing over each and every person gathered here today. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of god and everybody said, amen. I love you so very much. Enjoy these warmer temps and remember, we're not done with the snow yet.

Hang in there. Don't snow tires off. Don't take your snow tires off just yet. Have a great week. You got this.