August 1, 2008
Perfection
Leviticus
21:17-23 “Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding
generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his
God. For any man who has a defect
shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb
too long, a man who has a broken
foot or broken hand, or is a
hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or
scab, or is a eunuch. No man of the
descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the
offerings made by fire to the LORD. He has a defect; he shall not come near to
offer the bread of his God. He may
eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; only he shall
not go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he
profane My sanctuaries; for I the LORD sanctify them.’”
Wow
at first reading, it appears that God wants perfection! I’m not perfect, so
why would God ever allow me to come into his presence or serve Him? Why did he
require that of the priests of the Old Testament? The priest couldn’t even
have eczema or a scab for goodness sakes!
That
was the whole point of the law! To point out that we are sinners and need a
savior! On the contrary, I would not have known
sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the
law had said, “You shall not covet.”
(Romans
7:7) We cannot do it on our own. “All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
It was His plan from the beginning. He would do it for us. We just needed
to believe! It is explained further in Hebrews:
Hebrews7:26-8:6
For
such a High Priest was fitting for us,
who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first
for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when
He offered up Himself. For the law
appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which
came after the law, appoints
the Son who has been perfected forever.
Now this is the main
point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at
the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For
every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it
is necessary that this One also have something to offer.
For if He were on earth, He would
not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the
law; who serve the copy and shadow
of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about
to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See
that you
make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” But now
He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a
better covenant, which was established on better promises.
If
Jesus were following the law he couldn't have been a priest, since He was from
the tribe of Judah. According to the law, priests were only chosen from the
tribe of Levi. So.... the law was given to show us that man couldn't keep the
law and therefore were unable to save themselves. The
law was a shadow of the heavenly things. So as hard as we tried to follow the
law and its perfection, we were unsuccessful. God
had to fulfill both sides of the covenant in order for it to be perfect. There
had to be shedding of blood of a perfect sacrifice which would redeem mankind
and forgive him of his sin. Simply put, no matter how hard we try to be perfect
we are not! God is God and we are NOT! We come before Him wearing the robe of
righteousness of Christ bought with His own blood.
PERFECTION! Praise His name and thank Him today that we now can come
boldly before the throne to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. In our
weakness He is strong! In all of this we have to quit trying to do everything in
our own strength and our own way. We have to quit being our own god and let Him
be who He is—GOD!
He
doesn’t want perfection from us.
He
wants our hearts.
He
wants our devoted love.
He
wants our obedience.
He
wants our loyalty.
He
wants our surrender.
He
wants to be our God and for us to be His people!
Janet
Fairbrother