Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. I've got some Bad news. And that is that we are short my partner in crime on the podcast. He is, uh, at home recovering, trying to rest up. He's a little bit under the weather right now as so many people are. So you can be praying for pastor Rob, but he's already eagerly anticipating being back with us to record again. So hopefully it's just a couple of days and he'll be back full strength. Um, But yeah, no fun right now. There's a lot of this flu bug that's going around. I think that's what a lot of people have. I don't know that that's exactly what Pastor Rod has, but it's just seems to be decimating the population around North Texas here. And so hopefully you're staying healthy and having a happy Valentine's Day at the same time. It is February 14th and that is the day known as Valentine's Day. And it got me wondering as I was thinking about Hit and record on this podcast, just where it comes from and who St. Valentine was. And, uh, there's debate on, on which Valentine was the one that is, is responsible for the day. There's two Valentines out there. There's also a, a Western Valentine's day, which is February 14th, which is what we celebrate here. And there's also one celebrated by the. Eastern Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church on July 6th. So, um, men, if you didn't get the flowers in time for Valentine's Day today, maybe you can say, Hey, we're going to shift and celebrate the Eastern Valentine's Day on July 6th instead. And that'll buy you some, some time, but it's kind of strange that there's, it's a bit of an enigma wrapped in a mystery, uh, about why we. Celebrate Valentine's Day, and it has to do with love and exchanging cards and candy at school in the such there's nothing per se about Valentine himself that speaks to this, um, his death was, uh, the day of Valentine's Day, February 14th. That's the day it's commemorated and remembered and celebrated. And there was a feast in the early church to remember him as one of the martyrs, uh, But there's not really a whole lot there to suggest cupid and, and, uh, you know, the, the love and the, and the, the, the, let me buy my kids Valentine's day cards and have them drop them in various boxes at school. And the things, it seems to be a little bit of a mashup that, that people just noted at one point in time, it was believed during the middle ages that this first came to be around the time that Jeffrey Chaucer was writing before Chaucer, nobody really connected Valentine's day and romance at all. But it was during his time and his writings and then coupled with just the idea that February the springtime was the time where birds seem to pair together in the such that this was when romance got associated with Valentine's Day. So, uh, there you go. I, uh, maybe you already knew that. Maybe you have. Had an itch about why Valentine's day has anything to do with romance. And, and hopefully that scratched it a little bit, although not sufficiently because I still am confused about Valentine and Valentine's day. If you have more information on that, feel free to write in podcast at compass, NTX dot O R G and inform us, let us know this is where the Valentine's traditions come from, but happy Valentine's day to those who celebrate, I hope you have a great day going out and waiting for a long time to get a table. To have dinner with your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend, if that may be the situation that you're in. Um, yeah, it's going to be a Friday night too. I know for Amanda and I, a lot of times we would try to celebrate Valentine's Day on a different day of the week just because we didn't want to go out with all of the crowds and, uh, and run into all that. Although now that I'm saying that out loud, I think we're planning on going out tonight. So, uh, wow. There you go. I guess we will be waiting for a table ourselves too. So hopefully we'll see some of you out there also waiting for tables, depending on where you're going. But let's jump into our Bible reading for today. Leviticus five, six, and seven Leviticus five, six, and seven. Um, remember. Keep pressing on in the midst of it. There's, there's purpose. There's, uh, there's, there's substance to everything that we're reading here. This is not just to fill pages in the Bible. There's not a single word of God's word that is filler. There's not a single word in the Bible that is there just to create a longer book. There's significance to all of this, and not just for the Israelites, but also for you and I today. There's principles for us to take away. And so we come to Leviticus 5. Verses 1 through 13, we get into sins of what are called omissions. Sins of omission. These are sins that might be related to something that a person fails to do without realizing, but later comes to realize it and then confesses it as sin. Sins of omission may be something akin to somebody who didn't realize that part of being a follower of Christ is, is to, is to serve the body of Christ. And so they come to realize that later and they They may be repent of that and say, I want to go and I want to use the gift. The spirit has given me to serve the body of Christ, to build up the body of Christ, something along those lines, or maybe a sin of a mission. Maybe as a new believer or a believer for a period of time, uh, you don't realize that part of our, our sacrifice and worship of the Lord is giving. To him and giving to the church. And so to realize that, and then to go back and correct that that's, that's an example today of a sin of omission. And that was the case back here in the time of Israel. When somebody was made aware of that, they would have to confess that and seek the purification for that versus six through 13, then the purification offering. Uh, here the blood is going to be sprinkled on the altar and the rest is going to be poured out on his base. And the blood sprinkled on the altar is, uh, the, the, the sanctification, uh, element there that the holiness, the, the consecration. The carcass of the animal offered there is then going to be offered as a burnt offering. And then again, if they couldn't afford that, God was gracious and provided an alternative. If they couldn't afford a lamb or a goat for the offering, they could bring a couple of birds. Uh, but if, if they couldn't, could not even afford that, then they could have a handful of flour and that would be accepted. Again, God is, uh, he wants to be forgiving. He is a merciful and gracious God. And so he's trying to make it as. That's the wrong concept, but he's trying to not put an. Unnecessary barrier between somebody and forgiveness and even think just how the Catholic Church then has taken this over the course of their history and perverted something like this where Absolution and indulgences that somehow you could gain more Uh, forgiveness through your financial means and those that didn't have the same financial means. Well, they didn't have the same access to that forgiveness that the wealthier did. This is exactly the opposite of what God's doing here in Leviticus five. He's saying, look, if you can't afford this, that's okay. Bring a couple of turtle doves. If you can't afford the birds, okay, then bring a handful of flower. The point was bring something that's going to cost something sacrificial to remind you of the payment for the sin. Uh, chapter five, verses 14 through 16. Then, uh, this is where we get into reparation or restoration for defiling the holy things. If there was something that was holy, something that was consecrated, uh, to be used only for the worship of God, that, and that was defiled. Um, then there needed to be reparation or restitution made. This was an unintentional act that we're talking about. Wherein the person most likely took some food that had been set aside after being offered to Yahweh and set aside for the priest. Maybe they took some of that for themselves without realizing it. A breach of faith is how it's described. It's, it's a treacherous act, even though maybe not intentional, it's, it's still severe. It's significant. This is the same concept as adultery, very strong language, even for this. Unintentional sin. Why? Because the things that are the Lord's belong to him. And so for somebody to defile those things, uh, would have been treated quite seriously by the Lord at this time. But. Again, he is a God that delights to forgive and wants to forgive. And so he's going to give that as a means of how somebody can be forgiven through, uh, through the restitution. He would repay whatever he took and add one fifth to the total and give that then to the priests. All right. Verses 17 through 19 general rules here for. Unintentional sins. Uh, this is the person who feels they are guilty of a sin, but is unsure of perhaps what sin they committed. Again, I want you to pay attention to the, the generousness of God's grace and mercy. He is even willing to take the person that says, you know what? I just, I feel like maybe I wronged God. What do I need to do here? There's going to be an offering that is prescribed for that chapter six, then Versus one through seven. What do we do when we break an oath or deceive by an oath? A breach of faith here again is that same concept here? They need to be repaid whoever you defrauded with a false oath or you broke the oath You were to repay that person, uh plus one fifth Um of of whatever it was that you defrauded them of and so on top of that Then you have to bring a ram for a guilt offering Likely, uh, the, the ram and the guilt offering part of this is because when they took the oath, they would have employed Yahweh's name. They would have swore by the name of the Lord in making this oath. And so in breaking it, it would bring shame not only on them, but also on the Lord. And so hence the restitution made to God as well, uh, versus eight through 13, then caring for the burnt offering. Perpetual state of fire again on the altar remind the israelites of their perpetual need for the lord's forgiveness And so there was always to be fire on the altar there 14 through 18 of chapter 6 then caring for the grain offering god was Concerned about the the portion that was not offered on the altar and how it was to be consumed He not only cared about how they were to offer the portion on the altar itself But also what do you do with the leftovers? What is that going to look like? How are the priests going to consume it? What is that? How is it going to be done in a way that is holy because it belongs to the lord? In verses 19 through 23, uh, caring for the priest, grain offering offered on the, the day of the priest anointing. So this is specifically the one offered for the priests, uh, and this was to be completely burned with none left over to be eaten, uh, consecrated wholly to the Lord there, the, the priest grain offering, uh, then 24 through 30, uh, for the SIN offering. These are the instructions on how to care for the, the animals being offered as a sin offering. Uh, these offerings were given to the Lord and he cared again how they were handled. And, and he cared about beyond the sacrifice itself here. Also, we find examples of God's concern that the holy things not be treated as common. They were to break the earthenware pot. They were to wash the thing accidentally splashed with the blood that the holy things were different and they were to be treated as different. God is concerned about that. It lived against chapter six, 24 through 30. And then we get into chapter seven. Again, more concern for how we handle the offerings, the guilt offering versus one through seven. Any male within the Israelites could eat of the meat, but the skin was reserved for the priest who offered the animal. He could have the skin himself. And so that was for him, uh, versus eight through 10, dividing the leftovers amongst the priests. How do they determine who among the priests gets what portion, the burn offering, the grain offerings. These are very specific instructions that God is giving to his people. Versus 11 through 21, the peace offering. Verse 12, we see that this is about Thanksgiving, that there was to be none left over. It was all to be either offered or consumed, eaten by the people, the free will, the vow offering. Verse 16, any leftover from that one, which there apparently was allowable leftovers there, had to be burned after three days. And so if there was any leftover after day three, it needed to be burned, which some of you need to go to your refrigerators and apply that principle to the leftovers that might be still hanging out on the shelf in there. Pull them out, throw them on the fire. Um, it's time to let them go versus 20 through 21. Then again, notice how we have to be careful about how we come to the feast. Anyone unclean who ate would be cut off from the fellowship. And that's all part of the peace offering of the fellowship offerings there. Again, intentionality is the important concept here. 22 through 27, um, Leviticus chapter seven, no fat and no blood. The Israelites were forbidden from eating any of the fat or any of the blood. The fat belonged to the Lord and the blood contained the life and the life was significant there. And so that was not to be consumed by the Israelites. And if any did, what would happen? They would be cut off from the presence of their people. That's a very serious thing. God takes how we worship him seriously. That's what we can take away from even some of these things. God takes how we worship him. Very, very seriously. Finally, verses 28 through 36, here's the care for the priests. The Lord here is communicating that the people should respect the priests and that the priests were going to be cared for by him. And in verse 36, it's a perpetual do throughout their generations that the priests were always to be cared for, taken care of by the people and by their offerings. So there you go. Leviticus five through seven, let me pray and then we'll be done. God, we are grateful for a day, even though it's a Hallmark manufactured data to celebrate love as you have defined it and intended it to be represented in exercise between a husband and wife. And so we just pray for a great day for our church family today, that marriage especially would be celebrated and lifted up and exalted today as the gift that it is from you. And so we pray for a great day today in that regard. And we also thank you for your word and these detailed instructions. It seems like there's a lot here and it's easy to get lost in the weeds. And yet we were reminded how, how seriously you treat your holiness and how carefully we need to be about. Your holiness and about being holy because you have called us to be holy as we're going to read in just a few days here. And so God, we thank you so much for these things and we pray that we would be that holy people who approach you carefully, reverentially, and we approach you out of devotion and love. And we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Keep reading Bibles y'all and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Bye.