Hey everybody, welcome back to an exciting edition of the daily Bible podcast. What makes it so exciting? I'm not alone. Not alone. You're back. I am back. And amongst the living. I am. Some might say barely, but I do feel much better than I did several days ago. Even better than I did yesterday. Yesterday was good, but I'm glad to be back. I'm not fully here though. So I just got to say that I'm just, I'm here, but I'm not fully here. Mentally. Mentally. Yeah. I'm still slow to the draw. And I, even though I, it's, that's that weird space between not sick anymore, but not healthy. It can last for days. So I'm there. I feel great. I'm excited to be alive. I got some good rest last night in anticipation of getting back to the office, but I can't wait until I'm a hundred. Yep. That's fair. Your whole family was down. And I mean, like, it was the weirdest thing. I don't think we've ever had the experience where we all go down at the same time. And I don't recommend it to anybody. I would suggest no zero stars out of five, zero out of five. So there's families that are like, Hey, let's just get this sickness outta the way. Everybody come drink outta the same cup, basically. Hey, I was talking to somebody, I'm not gonna put them on blast, but they're like, yeah, we just like to get sick at the same time. You know, we all get it out of our system. And I'm like, I don't know if it works that way, I don't think that's how that's supposed to go. So if you could keep somebody healthy to keep the family functioning, that's ideal. It was a bummer 'cause we were just laying there trying to figure out, okay, who's gonna get up and make something Like, and, and who's gonna even eat it? 'cause I know some of us are hungry, some of us aren't. And then the little, the little girls. Are needing extra help. It was just, it was the worst. I never want to do that again. So that brings up a good point. I know you had a couple of families bring you some food and everything. Thank you. By the way. So helpful was helpful for you guys. But, but on that note, I think sometimes, and in part, it's just part of the, the American mindset and culture and spirit of independence. I think we're hesitant to ask for help. When we actually do need help, I think so often people will come and offer us up and say, Hey, can I help? And sometimes it can be in certain situations a little bit more work for us to figure out a way for them to help us than it is. Yes, actually helpful. But then there's other times where it's like, no, we couldn't really use the help. And we're still hesitant to reach out for help. I think maybe what are your thoughts on, on being more proactive and saying, Hey, we could use some help. Cause I think our church does a good job of saying, Hey, can we get some meals together for you? But not always. And so I think that's one benefit of community groups to be able to reach out and say, Hey, we're down. Our whole family's down. Would you guys mind, you know, it'd be great to, to get a couple of meals that inbounds out of bounds. I mean, yeah, I think it, it's highly contextual to the community of people that you're in. And I, yeah. We struggled because we're like, no one even has the energy to be like, Hey, can you come and help us out? We're just laying there. Nobody had any desire to get up and do anything, which is part of the battle. Cause I, I, at one point thought maybe I could ask somebody. And then I started asking myself, well, who should I ask? Should I ask any? And then I just gave up. Cause I'm like, this is too much effort. I'm just going to lay here and just God will send somebody. So I get that. Part of this conversation has to happen with the awareness that when you're sick, you're just not, you're not You're not thinking well, you don't feel well. You just don't, you have half the energy at most that you normally have. And that's when you need the most help. And so I suppose that one of the takeaways for us here is that when people are sick and the whole family's down, I think one of the things that helps is people just assumed they just came and they just drop stuff off. And I'd rather be in that scenario where it's like, oh man, now we have too much food. Fantastic. Let's just put it in the refrigerator. We can warm it up as we need it. I think that's my takeaway. Because I was trying to figure out, okay, how do we help other people who are going through this? Because the strain is still around flu, a flu B Corona, the Rona virus, or the rhino virus, the normal one. We're trying to figure out what we do. And I think that's just the best posture is just, we're going to, we'll just drop food off. And if it's a waste, I'm using air quotes here where they have too much. They already had more than enough. Okay. I'd rather err on that side than to err on the side of man. I hope they're not languishing and just dying of starvation. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good word. Yeah. And meals are so often. The way that we express that, that care at least here. But there's other things that, that people have done. I mean, during the warmer weather, people will go over and take care of somebody's lawn or yard or something like that. And there's ways for us to get creative in how we serve. All right. Well, there you go. That's how to help or how to be helped or how to serve. If there was anything to take from that. I don't know if there was, no, I think, I think there is. Cause I think our default is to ask somebody who's sicker or suffering, Hey, what can I do to help? Rather than thinking, Let me just figure out a way to, to offer help and, and do it. That takes a lot more lifting on that front end. And that's hard. Yeah. Cause sometimes help is not helpful. That's true. That is true. But it's always received with the spirit in which it's given. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. So better to err on the side of being too helpful. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's good. All right. Leviticus Leviticus 19, this chapter contains various laws for how to treat one another and how to maintain order in a civil society. One thing that I noticed this time reading through the book of Leviticus is how many times each of the commands is undergirded by a phrase, I am the Lord. And basically it seems what God is saying here is that's, that's reason enough for you to obey. These commands that I'm giving you. It's not as though you need more reason or more rationale behind why you need to obey. You need to obey because I'm the Lord and I'm the one that is commanding these things. And there's times sprinkled throughout that he'll remind them I'm the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. And so that's kind of the reminder of the redemption that, that he had purchased the people for himself and people for his own possession. And so therefore he has the means and wherewithal and right to to command them to do what he wants them to do. But. These are the commands that he's giving them. Notice in verse two, the repetition of the, the command, you shall be holy for I, the Lord, your God am holy. That is a constant refrain throughout the giving of the law. It's the reminder that we are to be set aside and holy as a result of that. Notice verses nine through 10, the prohibitions of reaping. The field all the way up to the edge. You might read that and go, okay, that's strange. But remember this comes into play with the book of Ruth because Ruth goes out to, to glean in the field of Boaz and Boaz is a man who is obeying the law. He's obeying what we read about here in Leviticus 19, So kind of cool there to, to see the overlap between those. Yeah, the rest of these, again, civil, civil society. This is how to operate with, within a civil society as you interact with one another. Yeah, I think the thing that stands out to me and there are several and some, some of them you've already mentioned, but I love the fact that care for the The weak and the vulnerable is not just a handout. It's not just, Hey, take a tithe and give them this money. It's no, give them opportunity to work for their food, which I think is a really important lesson for us to learn today. It's important for us to see that helping people. Isn't just saying, let's give them food or clothing or shelter, which that might be necessary. I'm not going to say there's never a time for that. We just talked about being sick, giving people food when they're sick. Very good, very helpful. But as a rule of thumb, when we're trying to help people loving them, doesn't mean we're just trying to give them resources. We're trying to give them it. More than resources, the ability to cultivate their own resources, as it were, so that they can learn to, it's that whole, it's that whole that saying, give it, teach a man to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime kind of thing. I think that's what scripture is. Saying here, at least in part, as we learn to love people. Yeah. The new Testament reinforces that idea to let the one who refuses to work, not give, not be given support, but they're, they're supposed to work for that. Yeah. Chapter 20. Then this chapter really is a chapter that. In a lot of ways, the United States could do well to pay attention to because you get two key areas here that are areas of, of sin and rebellion and wickedness in our nation. And the first part of it is, is child sacrifice. Now, at this time, it was offering a child to the God Molech. In our context, we would look at the, the realm of abortion in all of the children that have been sacrificed to the God of women's rights or reproductive health care or whatever you want to call it. But this is clearly here. God condemning this practice with Israel and the worship of the false God Molech at the time. And he said, this is not to be done. And there's a lot of, of severe consequences for the person that does this. He talks about mediums and necromancers in this same context as well. But then the rest of the chapter, and this is part two of America's sins is the punishments for sexual immorality. And so here he goes through almost every conceivable category of sexual immorality that you That you can imagine or think up, which don't spend too much time doing that. And it gives the results of this. And for so many of them, the result was there to be put to death there to put, be put to death. And, and most of the time it was the death of all the parties involved in the chapter ends then with a reminder that they're to obey in these matters because God is holy and had set them apart to be holy as well. So then again, we see. The emphasis on God's holiness and on Israel being set apart consecrated. They were to be holy because God is holy. They were to wear the marks of holiness themselves, respond to the accusation that Christians pick and choose verses that they want to apply, especially those that are fitting to their current cultural standards, because others will point out Leviticus chapter 20 or chapter 16, or whatever other chapters that we were looking at. No christian is enforcing those things. You're not, you're not calling a flag on the play when someone's wearing a mixed fabric. For instance, you're, you're, you're cutting your sideburns. I could see that here, but Leviticus 21 tells us, Hey, we shouldn't do that. Don't trim the sides of your beard. So talk to that person and respond to that accusation. I feel like that has a lot of weight. People say, well, you're just picking and choosing what you want to do here. And you're interpreting it as you please help people understand why we do what we do in terms of interpretation. Yeah. And I was trying to drive at this a little bit. You know, With the situations that we talked about with the laws about the childbirth and the laws of after, you know, sexual relationship between a husband and wife and why that the person is unclean during those times, there is ceremonial laws and there are moral laws. And the ceremonial laws are the laws like don't wear the mixed fabric. There was nothing morally wrong about wearing a garment of mixed frat fabric. There was nothing sinful about that, but it was God was saying to his people, I want you to be Categorically different from all the other nations. So this is a way that you're going to demonstrate that and express that cutting the, the, the sideburns not rounding the edges and so forth and so on. Again, dealing more with the ceremonial than it was the moral. There were times that that ceremonial might bleed over into these were practices that were engaged in by some of the pagan nations and may have connotated pagan worship or worship of false gods as well. And God wanted them to be separate from that. But that was a, that was a cultural. Norm at that time, then you get into the moral law and the moral law is clearly distinguished from that. And that these are things that are sinful. These are things that transgress God's design, God's order. And so when you have these various relationships that are listed out here in Leviticus chapter 20, all of the different perversions of God's intended design and order, these fall into that category of moral law. So this is not about ceremonial cleanliness. This is not about. What is indicative of idolatry, but this is about what is God prescribed and how do these things transgress the things that God has prescribed. So when a Christian. Looks at the book of Leviticus and read some of these things and we would shake our head and say, yes, we should definitely not do these particular sins. These are still relevant for us today. How would you say the average Christian should read and say, yes, this, this does apply. Remember, we talked about a young man back at AV who was trying to follow all of the Old Testament laws. Do you recall this conversation? He was saying how before he became a Christian, he got converted, reading his Bible. And then he came to compass and they started learning about what was allowed versus not allowed. And he realized, Oh, the old Testament had been fulfilled in Christ. So help the young Christian or the immature. You gave us three categories of Christians. I guess we're not talking to the mature ones here. Talk to the Christians who need it need help knowing what to apply versus what not to apply. How do you know the difference between civil and ceremonial? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it would come down to having a good commentary, a good study Bible, good resource with you as you're going through this, as the questions come up, as you read something like, okay, don't wear a mixed fabric. My guess is that's going to cause you to ask a question. Why not? And so having a resource at the ready to be able to consult, to say, okay, what was the reason behind this? And hopefully if that resource is good, like an ESV study Bible or another the, the MacArthur Bible commentary or the Bible knowledge commentary. They should help you help you distinguish what is civil versus what is ceremonial in the laws as you read through them, probably a good rule of thumb might be to say, if it's repeated in the new Testament. That's it. That's a really good starting place. And that's probably a little easier than saying, well, what does Leviticus say as a good place to start, but don't stop there. You're going to have to. And this is why reading your Bible every day, every year is so valuable because this kind of mastery is kind of understanding doesn't happen. In a week or six months, even, or a year, it takes years of staying in the scripture to say, okay, I get it. I know where God is pulling this idea from. I mean, you keep on casually dropping insights about the text, like, oh, Ruth and Boaz and, you know, reaping the, the, or tilling the soil or whatever it is that we just said. Someone's never going to even think twice about that. Cause like, oh yeah, I guess that isn't in Ruth. What? And they might even forget what's in the book of Ruth entirely. You need to be in your Bible all the time. That's what's going to help you navigate through these things. Instead of looking at it in a superficial trite and I don't know, a very foolish superficial way. You want to avoid that. And it's going to take a lot of time and effort on your part to really invest what's necessary. Yeah. And that's, that was, as I was preaching this past Sunday to that, that group of baby Christians, especially in that first point, expect to the unexpected challenges or challenges that that you're not ready for in your, your walk, the more you're in the scriptures, that the longer time you spend in the scriptures, the less of those that you'll encounter, because you will have a deeper knowledge and deeper understanding of the word of God. And God is never going to operate contradictory to what we find about him in the scriptures. The more you learn about God through your time in the word, the more you will know about who God is and how he operates. Now that doesn't mean that. You're always going to be ready for what comes your way, but it's, it's going to make you more ready for what comes your way. For sure. Chapter 21. Then we get to rules for the priests and their place in society. These rules were more strict than the rules for the common people because of the nature of their calling and how they were to serve the Lord. And so this is why when you read through this, there were rules for the priest about who he was allowed to marry, that he was only allowed to marry a virgin, that he couldn't remarry or marry somebody who had been married before that. This was. Yeah. About their role, their calling, and that God had set them apart. And yet they had specific rules and regulations for who they were versus the, the common people at the time. And so the priest were to be holy. It gets into how the priest should mourn for their, their, their lost loved ones. Again, how their rules for marrying rules for how the high priest should mourn and marry physical requirements for the priest versus 16 through 24. So chapter 21, really dealing with the priesthood itself there. And a good reason why you wouldn't follow this is because we don't have any high priests except for Christ. All these offices that we're looking at are obsolete now because we have Jesus. And so the rules for the high priest don't apply to us because we are a not high priest after the order of Levi were high priest after the order of Michael's deck. According to Christ, if we are kingdom of priests. And secondly, what you can learn from this is that. What God asked the high priest to do principally speaking is to showcase his holiness by living a holy lifestyle, which would include even the way that he approached God and having physical blemishes. I thought that was interesting. He couldn't have a blemish. He couldn't be blind or lame or have a mutilated face or a limb too long or injured foot or an injured hand or a hunchback or any of these things. I'll let you finish. Chapter, let's finish that verse by yourself, but I just thought, okay, there's, there's a connection in God's mind between physical wholeness and holiness. And we don't draw those same lines today. We don't tell people, Hey, you can't come to church. If you're a hunchback or one of these things, because again, all of this has been fulfilled in Christ. What we're looking at here is the principle, not necessarily the absolute practice of it, because again, fulfilled in Christ. Yeah. Yeah. That would make headlines. Church says you can't come if you've got things happening. Here's the beauty standards. You can't show up if you don't measure the biggest. Oh man, that'd be bad. Well, hey, let me pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we are thankful for your word and we want to be men and women of the word. We want to read it and read it in a way that we can grow in our understanding of you, grow in our understanding of your, your scripture so that we see the connections as one part relates to the other part and how it helps us to understand the whole thing better as we see that the one story coursing through. And so God, we are so grateful to be able to have the Bible, even as we're thinking about. Coming up this weekend. We're going to be talking about that. Just our privileged position that we sit where we sit in the situation that we're in being able to understand your word and have it here and have the access to you to be able to pray to you because we do have the one great high priest. So many blessings that we today as Christians enjoy, help us not to waste them. And so God give us a passion to to take up your word and to learn more about who you are. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See you folks. Bye.

Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of the daily Bible podcast. We hope and pray this has been a blessing to you and your time in the word. If it has, if you would subscribe to this podcast, leave a like, leave a comment and share it with some friends and family. That would be awesome. If you need more information about Compass Bible Church here in North Texas, you can go to compassntx. org. Again, that's compassntx. org. And we'll be back with you tomorrow for another episode of the daily Bible podcast.