[0:00]I could do something heroic for a day or two, but daily discipleship, that's hard. And sometimes it's these daily sacrifices that are the hardest to make. You don't have to solve all of your problems for the rest of your life. You just have to keep coming closer to Jesus Christ, one day at a time. Holiness was never meant to be a do it yourself project. Because of Jesus Christ, the way in is open to all of us.
[0:34]One of the things I love to use as a resource for learning more about the scriptures is the Bible Project videos. And recently I was watching the big picture overview they have on the book of Leviticus, and they pointed out a principle I had never noticed before. So at the very end of the book of Exodus, the Tabernacle is complete. God's glory descends on it in fire and a cloud. It's the moment that Israel's been waiting for. God is now coming to dwell with his people. But then we read, Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, or Tabernacle, because the cloud had settled on it. And that's how Exodus ends, the man who had talked to God on Sinai now can't enter the Tabernacle. Flip the page to Leviticus chapter one, it's the same story. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. God's on the inside, but Moses is still on the outside. But then when we turn to the book of Numbers, something has changed. In Numbers chapter one, verse one, we read the Lord spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting. So now Moses has come inside. Leviticus only covers a month of Israel's history, but it shows us the way in. It shows us how Moses went from outside the presence of God to inside his presence, and the key is holiness. As the Lord declares in Leviticus, over and over again, he'll say, I am the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. This theme appears throughout the book. A few chapters later, we read, be holy because I, the Lord your God am holy. And I think this is an important principle for us to remember because it's easy to get lost in Leviticus. Lots of rules, lots of details, and a lot of them don't apply to us anymore. In fact, if we were to think about the doctrine, principles, application framework that we've discussed before, that's going to help us see that there's doctrines and principles that we can pull from Leviticus. And even though the applications are different for us today, the principles still apply. For example, if we were to look at a doctrine, principle, application framework for Leviticus, we might say that there's a doctrine, God is a holy, divine being. A principle that grows out of this doctrine is, I am created in the image of God. Therefore, I need to be holy like God. And then within Leviticus, there's lots of applications that applied back then, we can come up with our own applications that applied to us based on these same doctrines and principles. So today we're going to see four major themes of holiness. Holiness through being set apart, holiness through sacrifice, holiness through purity, and holiness and atonement. These are the ways that Leviticus is showing us how to come inside into the presence of God. Let's start with holiness through being set apart. You remember our good friend the Blue Letter Bible, that talks about how we can see the original meanings of words in the Hebrew or the Greek. One meaning of the Hebrew word for holy, Kadosh, is set apart. So to be holy is to be set apart, marked for a special purpose in belonging to God. We read, you are to be holy to me because I, the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. From the very beginning, God has set apart his people by giving them specific practices to follow that make them different from everyone else around them. For example, consider the Sabbath. In Leviticus, we read, there are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work, wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. Now, most of us probably grew up either with a family culture or a church culture or even a national culture that honored the Sabbath day, that in some form recognized Sunday has being different than other days. But that was not the case anciently. Romans, Greeks, they didn't have the weekend like we have it today. In fact, many Roman and Greek authors commented on how unique the Jewish practice of the Sabbath was, and it wasn't always in a positive way. For example, one Roman author wrote, the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seductions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well. Now for the Israelites, the Sabbath was not about laziness, it was a time for worship, for rest in the Lord. But can you see how this Roman author mocked what was holy for the Israelites? It's sort of interesting and maybe that suggests us that we shouldn't be surprised today if there are things that we consider to be holy, but are mocked by society more broadly. So the Sabbath set the Jews apart, marked them as holy. Another thing that set them apart was the food that they were allowed to eat or not eat. Leviticus is full of food prohibitions. Sometimes today we might think of this is whether a food is kosher or not, allowable to eat under Jewish law. For example, the pig is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you. Archaeologists today when they're excavating in cities in the Galilee region for example, can tell if there's an area that was Jewish because there won't be any pig bones there. versus a Gentile city will have pig bones. So the very food that they ate marked them. Now, it's important to realize that at different times God has forbidden different foods. For example, Jews could drink wine, but not eat bacon. Latter-day Saints, it's the opposite. I'll let you decide who got the better end of the deal. Now God with his infinite fore knowledge, he knows why he gives certain health laws at certain times, but one thing is certain. Living these laws sets us apart and helps us to become holy. And even though we don't live the exact same food laws that ancient Jews lived, I think we can learn a lot from their faithfulness in practicing these laws. For example, you remember Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when they're taking captive into Babylon, they refuse to eat the king's meat. This would have been contrary to the laws of Leviticus. To the people of Babylon, this looked like foolishness. But to Daniel, it was faithfulness. And we sometimes just read the story and think, oh, way to go Daniel, but can you imagine the bravery it would take to tell the servant of the King, hey, I'm not going to eat that meat? Sometimes we worry about being in an awkward or uncomfortable social situation with the word of wisdom. But for ancient Jews it was much more serious than an uncomfortable situation. Consider the case of Eleazar. We read about him in the book of Maccabees, which is part of the apocrypha. So in about the year 170 BC, this is a time of hellenization, the Greek king Antiochus the IV is forcing Jews to forget the Jewish law and adopt Greek practices. There was one elderly man well respected in the city, his name was Eleazar, and some of the king's officials came to him and said, you're going to eat pork or you'll die. Now Eleazar is so faithful, he's not going to eat the pork, but no one wants him to die. So some of the people in the city, they come to Eleazar and say, hey, don't worry, we're going to do a little meat switch. At the last moment, we'll swap out the pork, we'll put in chicken, you can just eat the chicken and it's okay. What would you say if you were Eleazar? In Maccabees we read, such pretense is not worthy of our time of life, for many of the young might suppose that Eleazar in his 90th year had gone over to a foreign way of life and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws. When he had said this, he was dragged at once to the rack. Sometimes we think pure pressure is hard, and it is. But if I'm lucky enough to meet Eleazar in the next life, I don't think I'm going to go up to him and tell him about the challenges of pure pressure in the 21st century. There's so much we can learn from these faithful individuals who received laws from God to set them apart and they adhere to them, no matter what. So we've talked about the Sabbath, food laws, let's look at one other, laws relating to dress and appearance. Some of these might seem strange to Latter-day Saints today. For example, Leviticus chapter 19 verse 27, Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. Over time, many Orthodox Jewish people have interpreted this about not cutting off a certain portion of your hair. That's why you might have observed Orthodox Jews who have very long side curls. They're doing their best to adhere to what Leviticus 19 says. Now, would you keep your side curls even if it meant your life was in danger? Many Jews chose to do just that during the Nazi occupation, even though their side curls clearly marked them as a target for the Nazis. They chose to be faithful to what they understood Leviticus to be teaching. Think of the kind of faith it takes to stay firm in the face of intense pressure. Now, today we don't follow these specific laws. How does God today call us to be set apart? Let's think about these same three categories. Does our behavior on the Sabbath set us apart in a world that treats Sunday like any other day? Do our choices about what we eat and drink mark us as disciples? Does our appearance reflect our covenant identity? So in every age, God has practices to set his people apart. This helps us to be holy so we can enter into his holy presence. Consider this question. What is one gospel standard you have that sets you apart? How has keeping it blessed your life? Another way that Leviticus teaches us about holiness is holiness through sacrifice. Now we could probably have a whole course just on the sacrificial system of Leviticus. There's all these different types of sacrifice, all of which point to Jesus Christ. So let's look at three types of sacrifice a little more closely and see how they can connect us to the Savior. So first there's the burnt offering, talked about in Leviticus 1. This is one of the most basic types of sacrifice. Unlike some sacrifices where people could eat some of the animal after the sacrifice, the burnt offering is consumed entirely on the altar. So it symbolizes complete surrender to God. Before the animal was killed, the worshipper was commanded, you are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. So picture the scene, a person brings a spotless animal, lays a hand on its head, and watches as the priest takes its life. You acknowledge this animal is dying so that I can live. Just as the worshipper laid a hand on the lamb, so the Lord laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. So remember the burnt offering is completely consumed. We might say it like this, Jesus gave himself wholly for us so that we might be made holy in him. Another sacrifice described in Leviticus is called the freewill offering. And the good news about this one is, it's pretty self-explanatory. Just from the title, you know what it's about, it's just whatever offering you want to give. It's not prescribed, it's not a certain percentage, this is just an act you give out of love. And that of course, points us directly to Jesus Christ. We sometimes say, the Romans killed Jesus. That's sort of true, but at the same time, the Savior said, I lay down my life for the sheep. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I think there can be a huge shift in our sacrifices when they go from being something that we have to do to becoming a freewill offering. I was talking with a young mother, she had three kids under five. Some of you have been there, it's such a busy time. She said, I was exhausted and frustrated. Every day felt like one more demand, another meal to cook, another nose to wipe, another diaper to change. I began resenting how much of myself I had to give up. But then I remembered that I had always wanted to be a mom. It was my choice. When I saw it as something I wanted to do, everything changed. It's still exhausting, but now I find joy in serving my children. That's the power of a free will offering. Now the last offering we'll talk about might be the toughest one of all, it's the daily offering. Imagine if the Prophet stood up in General Conference and said, drop everything you're doing and move to Missouri. Would you go? I know you would go. The freeway would be packed, everyone's heading to Missouri, we're so excited. But what if instead, the Prophet says in General Conference, read the scriptures every day. Do we feel the same level of excitement and dedication? I think the reality is, I could do something heroic for a day or two, but daily discipleship, that's hard. And ancient Israel knew about that. The Lord commanded, this is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. So collectively, Israel is making a daily sacrifice. And sometimes it's these daily sacrifices that are the hardest to make. But Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For us, our daily sacrifices won't look like a lamb on the altar, but they might look like serving an aging parent, day after day. Or working hard in an important job, or making time for daily scripture study. Whatever our offerings might be, the daily sacrifice reminds us that enduring to the end comes one day at a time. And in some ways that's hard because you have to keep that momentum. But I also love what President Monson said. He said, life by the yard is hard, but life by the inch is a cinch. You don't have to solve all of your problems for the rest of your life, you just have to keep coming closer to Jesus Christ, one day at a time. The daily sacrifice helps us do that. So we've talked about three different types of sacrifices, burnt offerings, freewill offerings, and the daily sacrifice. And I just want to give you a moment, pick one of these sacrifices, and think about how have you or how could you apply this in your life to increase in holiness? Let's hear some thoughts. I don't have a lot of money, I've never had a lot of money. I've been a single parent raising seven children, and so I wasn't able to afford to go on a mission. And so I put myself on a mission, and I go to the temple every day, and I'm a convert to the church, so I have lots of uh ancestors who are not members of the church. And so I I take their names to the temple. Thank you. When my oldest kids started going to Seminary, they had Seminary that was a 20-minute drive from our house and it was at 6:00 a.m. every day. And I started out by taking them to the church, dropping them off, coming home, and going back to bed. And I decided that they were making a sacrifice to get up and to study their scriptures every single day, that I could make a similar sacrifice. So instead of going back to bed, I used to come home and spend that same time that they were at Seminary studying, and it just really drew me closer to the Lord and it really drew me closer to my kids making that sacrifice every day. Mm, beautiful. Thank you. Now some of you might be thinking to yourself, I just love this discussion on holiness. I wish I could read a whole book about it. Wish granted. So there's a free ebook on this topic, it's called Approaching Holiness. I've linked to it on the course website, I definitely suggest you check it out because we're only scratching the surface of holiness today. But for now, let's continue our discussion of holiness by looking at holiness through purity. Now in Leviticus, holiness wasn't just about sacrifices or food laws. It also reached into everyday life. And there were certain conditions that would make a person ritually unclean. This wasn't unclean as in like they were sinners or they couldn't come into the presence of God, it was more of a ritual impurity. One example of this would be leprosy. We read, anyone suffering with a defiling skin disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, Unclean! Unclean! As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone, they must live outside the camp. So why did the leper have to call out, I'm unclean, I'm unclean? This is a key principle in Leviticus. It's that if anyone touches anything ceremonially unclean, they become unclean. So this ritual impurity is contagious. If you're a leper and I touch you, now I'm impure as well, and I'd have to go through some rituals to become ritually pure again. These laws create a painful separation. If you're a leper, no one wants to be around you. We also read, when a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. Again, notice that it's contagious. And sometimes this could be extremely serious. Leviticus continues, when a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge. So for such a woman, daily life would be unbearable. Everything she touched would be unclean. In their day and time, the husband could justifiably divorce her because she can't be touched. So Leviticus makes it very clear that in a sense unholiness is contagious. That's why what Jesus does is so surprising. One day a leper approached Jesus and he said, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Now can the Savior heal a leper without touching him? Yes. But Jesus touches him and says, I am willing, be clean. Christ's holiness was contagious. It reverses the Levitical practice. On another occasion, there was a woman who later Christian tradition tells us, her name was Veronica. She had had an issue of blood for 12 years. Think about what that would have meant for her based on the Leviticus passage we just looked at. To us, Leviticus is done away, but to her that was the law of the land where she lived. According to Leviticus, she was permanently unclean. Then she heard about Jesus. She thought if I could just touch the fringe of his garments, I'll be healed. So she reached out, touched Christ's clothing. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, who touched my clothes? The woman doesn't say anything because she's now broken every Levitical law. She's worried that Christ will be angry with her because now he's ritually impure. But the Savior didn't care about that. The opposite happened, holiness and power flowed out of him and into her. And he said, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. So in the Old Testament, impurity was contagious, but with Jesus, holiness is contagious. And I want you to know I really believe this, this is a true principle. There is nothing so unholy or so bad that Jesus cannot touch and heal it and bring it to holiness. I think we can see Jesus raising the bar in this, not lowering it. For example, if he were a teacher of a youth Sunday school class, I don't think Jesus would be kicking out the rowdy kids in the back. He'd be going to sit down and hang out with them. And I love all of this, but it's probably just the Pharisee in me, but I'm a little nervous about it. I'm a little nervous, for example, if I teach a family home evening lesson on this topic to my kids, and we talk about how Jesus's holiness is contagious. And so my teenagers are like, great, I'm going to start hanging out with the really bad kids at school, doing bad stuff, and I'm going to help them become more holy. Ooh, that could be a good idea, but what if they crumble under pressure? I mean, that's a real concern, right? The Apostle Paul wrote, bad company corrupts good character. Even Peter, who swore he would never deny Christ, crumbles under the pressure. We're not as strong as Jesus Christ. I know his holiness is enough, but is mine, is my teenage child's? So I think just like with a lot of good gospel principles, there's a little bit of attention here. On the one hand, we could avoid unholy people and situations because unholiness is contagious. But on the other hand, we can be a light to others, we can be a force for good. So, think about your own lives. Christ's holiness brought cleansing, and at the same time, bad company corrupts good character. I'd love your thoughts. In your life, how do you handle this tension? The first thought that came to me was my choice of entertainment. And I do thank the Holy Ghost, I I think thank you. You reminded me that this is not going to go anyplace good if I continue watching this movie or listening to this podcast or or whatever. I appreciate that I'm hearing a voice that's helping me be more discerning about what I'm taking in, so that the bad company won't corrupt the goodness that I'm trying to build inside me. Thank you. I love the new for the strength of youth pamphlet which talks about so much less what actions should you should you be doing and should you not be doing. What are the intentions behind your actions? What are you hoping to accomplish with what you're doing there? Yeah. Amen. Ultimately, I don't know that there's one right answer to this wrestle, to this tension. But I love what Sister Wendy Watson Nelson said. What would a holy person do? Sometimes a holy person is going to reach out and touch another individual and bring them in, and sometimes a holy person is going to get out of a bad situation. Ultimately, it's revelation that's going to be the key. And I think honestly pondering the question, what would a holy person do? That's a question that can change our lives. So last we want to focus on holiness and atonement. Once a year, on the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar, everything stopped. It's the day of atonement, or Yom Kippur. Even today in modern Jerusalem, which is a city of a million plus people, the entire city shuts down. All vehicles stop, traffic signals are turned off. It is a holy day. So what made the day of atonement so special? It's the one day in the year that the high priest can go into the Holy of Holies, which represents the presence of God. The ritual was something like this. There would be two goats selected and the high priest would cast lots to determine which would be sacrificed as an offering to the Lord, and which would be the scapegoat that would be sent into the wilderness. We read, he shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood. He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. Then another goat, the scapegoat is brought forward. Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness. So you have two bulls, one killed for a sacrifice and the other set free. And then the high priest would bathe himself with water after the ceremony. Year after year, the same thing happens. The blood of the goat representing Aaron bringing that into the presence of God, metaphorically the Holy of Holies and offering this sacrifice. The book of Hebrews though, teaches a blunt truth about this sacrifice. It says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. This whole system, this most holy day was all pointing to Jesus Christ. Again in Hebrews we read, Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. So the Tabernacle is a type or a shadow of heaven coming into the presence of God is symbolic in the Holy of Holies, but Jesus went truly into the presence of God. He has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. It's not the sacrifice of a goat that atones for sins, it's the sacrifice of Christ. He went in not once a year, but once for all. We read, Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. So can you see the contrast? The priest went in once a year, Christ went in once for all. Now a beautiful part of the day of atonement was it was a sacrifice for all of Israel. We read, he, the high priest, shall make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community of Israel. That's a pretty big group. But it's still exclusive. What about all the other nations? Jesus changes that too. In the book of Revelation, we read that his sacrifice redeems people from every tribe and language and people and nation. Christ's atonement knows no boundaries, no exclusion. Now, let's come back to the goats. So you remember the scapegoat that was set free. This idea of two goats coming before the high priest points forward to another person, not the high priest, but Pilot. Two men were brought before him. He had to make a choice, one would be slain for the sins of the people, the other would be set free. Even in some small details, like Pilot washing his hands afterwards, point to the high priest who washed his hands after the sacrifice. In a sense, Barabbas is the scapegoat, he's set free because of the death of Jesus Christ. Now, we don't often think a lot about the scapegoat and we don't think a lot about Barabbas. But I watched a video one time that just deepened my understanding and appreciation for the Savior. And what that experience might have been like with Christ and Barabbas before Pilot. So I want to share this clip with you, but just a little warning, it's, maybe unique. It's a Christian pastor named Judah Smith who's going to be talking. He's not talking in a quiet sacrament meeting voice. He's got a loud preacher voice. So just enjoy it and think about what message from this video touches your heart today. We see the story of Jesus going to the cross and everything seems to kind of be hand in hand and then there's this one character that seems to interrupt the narrative, his name is Barabbas. And you don't even know much about him except that he's a murderer, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel and why he's even mentioned sometimes, I'm not so sure. It's like, let's this is about Jesus going to the cross and so in this moment Pilate thinks, I hold the destinies of these two men in my hand. I know the Jews have a tradition that on a holy day, I will release one of the prisoners on death row. Pilate stands on this audacious stage, who now presents Jesus, son of the living God versus Barabbas, the thug and rebel. He says, all right, who do you want? This is blasphemy. This is this is gone too far. There's no comparison. This is the rightful prisoner, a man who should be on death row. He's a rebel against Rome, he leads a rebellion, he murders people. He's a bad man, he's a thug and he's a crook. He deserves the chains and he deserves the crucifixion. Jesus, what has he done but heal, restore, deliver, set free, opened blind eyes, opened deaf ears, healed the lame and the leper? What what has Jesus done? Who do you want? We want Barabbas. Yeah. Give us Barabbas, Barabbas. People say, give us Barabbas. The Roman soldiers just come up and they put the key in and they unlock Barabbas from his chains and shackles and he walks down the platform, welcomed by all of his thug friends. Yeah, the people love me. Yeah, that's right. I don't even know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is my people love me. There seems to be no conscience in Barabbas. There's no record of him turning to Jesus and saying, I owe you everything now for you have set me free. No, no you don't see any of that in Barabbas. And God knew that. Jesus stood there silently for he knew the will of the Father. He said, it's fine, Father, let them have Barabbas. For Jesus knew that the Father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas, so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free. No, no, no, no. It was the love of a heavenly Father. When I look at the story, I realize who Barabbas really is. That's me. That's you, that's us. For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent his son for Barabbas, even the one he knew would walk away from Jesus and his free gift and never come back. He loves him. And the nerve and all the audacity of the believers to think, I got saved by grace, but now that I'm in this deep, dark place of bondage, what? I better work hard to get myself out. That's the opposite of the gospel. Are you bound? Are you held under the power of this temptation, this sin? Do you feel like it's controlling you? What are you going to do? I'm going to shake myself free. Stop it. No, you won't. You're no match for the powers of hell and the urges of sin. You will not overcome it, and you will never overcome it. You'll just be another statistic. There's no answer within yourself, your own marriage, your own goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion will not save your marriage, it will not save your kids. There's only one. And he's the one that took your place. He's the one that stood silently on the platform with Pilate and said, yes, let him have Barabbas, take me. I see him, I see him walking to the post to be whipped. As I stand a free man, all the attention is turned now. And I feel the love of God saying, go son, live your life. I'll pay the price. Where did we get off thinking that we were going to set ourselves free? It's still Jesus, it'll still Jesus, it'll always be Jesus. It'll never stop being the power of Jesus. If his blood is sufficient for your salvation, his blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge and every sin and every temptation. Jesus is enough.
[36:12]Do you really believe it? Do you really believe that Jesus is enough? And as we were watching that clip together, it just came into my mind, this is what holiness is all about. I'm not going to get to holiness through all of my efforts, the holiness comes through Jesus Christ. As Paul writes, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Holiness was never meant to be a do it yourself project. All of the sacrifices, all of the rules, everything we've been seeing in Leviticus, it all points to Jesus Christ. And you remember that at the beginning of the book of Leviticus, Moses stood outside the tent. He can't get in. But by Numbers, he's inside. He found a way in. What is the way into the presence of God? You know Jesus said it, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Because of Jesus Christ, the way in is open to all of us. Because of Christ, we can approach God's throne of grace with confidence. So I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is this, will we stay outside the tent or will we step in?
