Anna Moore

I’ll be the first to admit that I have struggled in the past to read and study from the Old Testament. It’s long, repetitive, and confusing. God seems so harsh and strict. No one seems to be able to get it together and just when it seems they do, somebody has to go and ruin it!

As I was reading through Leviticus last month with the reading plan I’m following, something shifted in me. I was reading about the laws for sin offerings and tears streamed down my face. (Yes, that really happened.) It was as if I had just read John 17 or Romans 8 or Revelation 22, but no, I was reading the Lord give Moses the law to instruct the Israelites to holiness. What had previously seemed like a bunch of rules and violent bloodshed had started to look something like grace. 

This hasn’t been the greatest start to a year for me. I’ve been carrying bitterness and disappointment around and feel like I’m in somewhat of a dry season spiritually. Maybe you’ve been there. I crave intimacy with the Lord, but it’s like every part of my body and mind wants to reject it. My fallen nature seems to have dominion over me. 

But as I read through that book of the Bible that has challenged me in years past, I saw how God is gracious. He gave the Israelites a way to deal with their sin. He gave them ways to punish sin because He wanted them to know He is holy and anything less than holy cannot be in His presence. And yet, He wanted them anyway, and so He gave them a way. He didn’t leave His people to fend for themselves or sit with their sin. He came to them, through one man, and made a way for them to be redeemed. Death is the wages of sin, and so blood sacrifices had to be made. The unclean had to be made clean.

All of that remains true for us today. God gives us a way to handle our sin and we do that through confessing and repenting and surrendering all to Him. He doesn’t want us to carry the bitterness, anger, disappointment, addiction, laziness, lust, envy, gluttony, greed, and whatever it is that we’ve been known to carry and allow to rule over us. He gives us the way to freedom. He offers us rest for our souls.

Jesus commands us to, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The Lord wants His people to be set apart. He doesn’t want sin to rule over us, but through Him to have power to rule over it and enter into His holy presence. 

Through Moses, God told His people they shall be holy to Him, “for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (Leviticus 20:26). He wants us to be holy, as He is holy. In other words, He wants us to be like Him, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

Under the New Covenant, we have a way, through one Man, to be redeemed. We can put on His holiness and grow, through our sanctification, to become holy as our God. We can let Jesus carry the heavy burden that sin can weigh, and we can be free. We can one day enter into eternal rest as we commune with our holy God face-to-face.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

All scripture references are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.

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