Love is never forced. But love is a force. Otherwise we would have no Saviour dying for us. Love cost. costs time, it costs service, costs money, it costs blood.
And we know this as Christians. and we want to not lose sight of it. The Israelites In this chapter could and did Fund God's Word without anybody asking them to do it through silver, animals, land holdings, as I mentioned. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus. Please stay tuned. Stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio. specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in Leviticus chapter 27 as he begins a brand new study called To the Lord.
Leviticus chapter 27. To the Lord, that's the title. I think it's 13 times that phrase shows up in this chapter. And it's a fitting climax to This book of worship. What has preceded this twenty-seventh chapter in that twenty-sixth chapter?
We're Offerings that were obligatory, you had to bring them, and in other places in Leviticus. But this chapter. has to do With offerings you don't have to bring. And that's critical to understanding what's going on. And if you can understand what's going on, then the blessings are.
much easier to pick up. All vows in Scripture are Free will. You don't have to make the vow. The Hebrew word is equivalent to our word promise. But concerning the offerings, God is not saying, Hey, I want you to bring this to the temple and offer it to me.
It's the other way around. You're saying to God, I want to bring this to the temple and offer it to you. It's born out of a desire. to serve God. It is born out of a desire to give.
to the Lord. And we do this in many ways. Today, we don't go to the temple with oxen or. or land or something like that. We bring our lives.
I think Paul may have had this in mind when he said, present your bodies a living sacrifice, because. That's what the first section is going to talk about. Making an offering of yourself or or someone else. In this chapter, you can dedicate people. You can dedicate animals, houses.
Lands? All of this for the upkeep. of the sanctuary. The priests did not have a salary, as the salaries go. They lived off the portions given to them.
by the people. And the sanctuary much of it was sustained. Through these offerings. I'll repeat it several times because it's that important. These are not the standard offerings, a whole burnt offerings, a trespass offering.
This is a different class altogether. And so Leviticus wraps up its story of how God wants his people to approach him. With a note of dedication. From the heart. to support the sacredness of the sanctuary.
the needs of the priesthood. Love is never forced. But love is a force. Otherwise, we would have no Saviour dying for us. Love cost.
costs time, it costs service, costs money, it costs blood. And we know this as Christians, and we want to not lose sight of it. The Israelites In this chapter could and did Fund God's work without anybody asking them to do it through silver, animals, land holdings, as I mentioned. Or even The uh Houses. You could dedicate your house to God.
One of our most important possessions.
So, the lesson, the lesson in Leviticus is that. Holiness requires cost And commitment, and you're not going to get away from that in the New Testament. It ramps up.
So now let's look at the first verse.
Now Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, Now here's God's protocol throughout. the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, He speaks to Moses, he explains his laws, all the events taking place, and then Moses repeats it to the Israelites. Verse 2: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When a man consecrates body By a vow, certain persons to Yahweh according to your valuation.
Now we'll stop mid-sentence there in that second verse.
So you feel this surge in your heart. I just want to do something for God. I want to give back. And we see this often. We say, I just want to serve the Lord.
Where can I serve?
Someone once told me years ago, I'll serve any way you want, except. And I thought that was pretty good. I mean, you know, they knew their boundaries. There's just some things I just cannot do. And, you know, I'm not going to take a cheap shot at that.
I was very grateful for that person. They did serve for quite a while.
Well, here you want to give to God. to do something. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm one sixteen, What shall I render to Yahweh for all his benefits towards me? This is the same. idea behind David You know, when God said, David, you want to build me a house?
I that's a very noble gesture, a voluntary pledge, a promise, a vow to God. Don't make it if you can't keep it. Just because it's voluntary doesn't mean you have the right. to make false promises. Ecclesiastes V When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed. better not to vow than to vow and not pay. And as a pastor over the years, there have been those, I'm going to do this, pastor, and I'm going to do that. They don't do it. And it's cool.
You're going to get it? No, I don't do that. I just notice it. Anyway, here's a few pledges in Scripture that we're familiar with. Three of four are abuses.
And those are the ones that seem to stick with us. This is Jephthah. his reckless vow, whatever comes out of the house, I'm going to offer as a sacrifice to you.
Well, this passage of Scripture was already written, and that means all he had to do, and I believe they did not Sacrifice his daughter. Blood sacrifice. Come to this section and understand she could be redeemed. If she was 20 years old or more. thirty shekels, and she was redeemed.
We'll come to that as we go through this. Then there's Hannah's desperate vow to have a son if she would dedicate him to the Lord. That means that she's falling in line with this passage of Scripture. I'm going to give my child to the Lord. And that she did.
Peter, of course, is impetuous vow. These guys may fail, but not me. And then there's Ananias and Sapphira's false vow in Acts chapter 5. Partial. Fulfillment.
not because of inability, but because of dishonesty. Because they were told, right, you lied to the Holy Spirit.
So when a man consecrates by a vow, here in verse 2, certain persons to the Lord. as Hannah did with Samuel. Volunteers to dedicate to the Lord.
Now, the Levites could pledge themselves or their child to the sanctuary role. But the other people could not. 1 Samuel 1, verse 11, I will give him to Yahweh. All the days of his life. and no razor shall come upon his head.
Here's Hannah. She hasn't had children. How is she going to Pull that off. Loving Samuel and telling him Before birth you were consecrated to the Lord, and the locks of your hair are a testimony to Him. And it took Samuel to say amen.
And do it because he could have rebelled. Also, anyone could vow to support the sanctuary with some other resource.
Now, this is for the non-Levites. In an amount Equivalent. to the value put on their life.
Now that has little twists and turns to it, so we'll have to peel back the layers in this one. This practice ensured that the sanctuary received and the priest financial support to sustain operations. Second Kings twelve, five, if you want to reference a little bit more how it worked, because it's a little confusing We don't have all the information. When Moses put this chapter together, as he did with all of Leviticus, he left out a lot of information. But he put enough in there for us to get the picture.
And we don't have enough information to know, well, did the coins go to the priest and the land and the food and this go to the Levites? And then what did the priest get? And so we don't have all the information, we just have some. And it's good to know that, so we're not intimidated. or spend unnecessary time in passages that don't have an answer.
According to your valuation.
Well, this is a subjective and objective at the same time. The objective part is God's watching the priest. The subjective side is He's going to place these values based on market rates. You know, they're selling slaves over there for this amount, and so we better make sure we use this amount when we're dealing with this kind of a topic. The priest had to know The value of things around them.
Well, what's that have to do with me? I don't have to know. What a house goes for and within my community, unless I'm in the market for a house. But what does that have to do with I belong to a priesthood too. Not a Levitical one.
Not an Ironic one. but a royal one. And as a priest, I'm supposed to know the value of things around me.
Now, not pencils and boats and things. But spiritual things. I'm supposed to understand the spiritual realm that is around me as it is exposed. In the scripture. and through discernment, Verse 3, if your valuation is of a male...
up to 60 years old. Then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
Now It's better to say shekel out like that and whisper it. But anyhow, Fifty shekels.
Now shekel in the Hebrew is a weight. And it was a unit. of a weight used for measuring out currency. About 12 of our grams, which would be about two quarters, Or No, two nickels. Uh anyway, American penny and American nickels are five grams each.
And um you can just Google it. It used to be, to get answers like that, you had to have Encyclopedia Britannica, and you just had to have all sorts of books. And now you're just like, I'll get that in like two seconds. Watch this. Anyway.
The practice of exchanging a set amount of silver. for a life of a person ceremonially. Paul, as I mentioned, may have had this in mind when he says, Present yourselves a living sacrifice.
Now In redeeming the firstborn, this was practiced. The firstborn of your cattle, the firstborn of your family. You had to go down to the tabernacle with five shekels. and redeem them. And not the animal.
The animal was slaughtered. But the human, your firstborn, of course, there was no human sacrifice. You would pay five shekels, and that would redeem. That firstborn.
So this is not a new concept for the Jew. It's in a few places. The values established in this passage again, likely derived. from the typical prices for slaves. in those days.
Usually a man is paid for serving. Here he is paying to serve.
So, if you say, I want to dedicate my family to the Lord. That's if you have five children.
Well, you'd go down to the temple. You couldn't bring your firstborn because that one was already dedicated at birth for five shekels. But the others, if you had five sons, depending on their age, let's just say they were adults. Twenty years old and or up.
Well, that'd be fifty shekels each. And you would give that To The Lord. It was a form of A monetary offering to God. God has blessed me with such an abundance. If you wanted to do yourself.
If you weren't the firstborn, the values are established. God established the sanctuary value of the people according to the shekel. And Adult manhood began at 20 years of age, Exodus 30, verse 14. Everyone included among those who are numbered from twenty years old and above shall give an offering to Yahweh. Numbers chapter 1.
From twenty years old and above, all who are able to go to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their names, which is why the book of Numbers is called Numbers, in numbering them for war. The sanctity of the sanctuary covered in chapter nineteen. You shall keep my Sabbath. and reverence my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
And the sanctuary to the Jew was the presence of God with the people. Psalm 150 verse 1 Praise Yahweh. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise Him. In His mighty firmament.
The point that I'm making is. The Jews were to support their sanctuary because they were in love with their sanctuary if they were righteous Jews. And by righteous Jews, I mean practicing. Their faith. Jeremiah says, a glorious high throne from the beginning.
Is the place of our sanctuary. We should couple this with Jesus buying The church, local and universal alike. with his own blood. Don't split it. Verse 4: If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.
Well, why is a man nearly twice as much than for the woman of the same in the same age bracket? Because of the manual labor in that economy. The men generated More value. It was an agrarian economy. The farming The war, the men for war, this is what part of making that distinction.
This does not reduce the value of the women. This has nothing to do with the value of their soul. It has to do with their contribution to the society And if you took away the men, then other men would come along and take away the women. It's a fact of life.
So, the value of a woman is not thirty shekels. The value of a woman. Is the cross of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ? It is equal for the man. It is equal for the adolescent.
For the toddler. or for those on Medicare. And we'll come to that. In a moment. Those of you who are on Medicare, you should appreciate that more.
with a little louder. Anyway, coming back to this. And verse 5, and if from 5 years old up to 20 years old, then your valuation for a male shall be 20 shekels, and for a female, 10 shekels. God is shaping how they handle their economy. Verse six.
And if from a month old up to five years old, then your valuation for a male shall be five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. Verse seven. And if from sixty years old and above, If it is a male, then your valuation shall be 15 shekels and for a female, 10.
So at retirement age in that society, the temple value decreased. But again, it has nothing to do with the value. of the soul. Moses himself. Would have been in this 15 shekel category.
It wouldn't be complaining. Wait, that's all I'm worth.
Well, it's not about the worth. And so it was never an issue. It had everything to do with supporting the temple. and refining the views Of the society as far as our roles are concerned. Verse eight.
But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value on him according to the ability of him who vowed. The priest shall value him. We're going to read a lot about the priest putting the value on things throughout this chapter. Here, if the person is just too poor, a man comes up, I want a gift to God. How much can I give based on who I am?
And the priest would say, well, let's determine your budget. and if he was a beggar it would be very low. How much did you get this week? You know, what do you got on you? And you work with him to determine what he could reasonably offer and still.
Feel the pinch. of sacrifice. Offerings to God should have feeling attached to it. Feelings are wonderful so long as they don't run the ship. Once they run the ship, are you going to run aground?
Or you're going to run over somebody. Verse 9. If it is an animal, Then this might help us understand what's going on as we get into these non-human offerings. If it is an animal, that men may bring as an offering to Yahweh, all that anyone gives to Yahweh shall be holy. He shall not, verse 10, substitute it or exchange it good for bad or bad for good.
And if he at all exchanges animal for animal, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy. All pledges were final. No substitutions. Rash vowels, afterthoughts. they would be discouraged.
Once you made the commitment, you were in for it. And if you try to Real and deal, then you'd give both, you'd lose double.
So I don't think anybody We have no record of anybody.
Well, Sapphire and Ananias did some wheeling and dealing, but not identical. But the idea is that these were safeguards, these commandments.
So if you vowed. If you brought a clean animal, ritual clean, one that could be offered on an altar, which this is not. Because This verse, and there are others, I think, verse 31, make it clear whether the animal is good or bad. It will be received.
Well, you don't do that with a blood sacrifice. If it has a spot or a blemish or something wrong with it, it's rejected.
So, this is not that offering. This offering is all about the money. Not in a negative way. You bring your Sheep. And you say I want to donate this sheep as a vow to the Lord.
And the priest says, well, the sheep is worth ten shekels. And so you, oh, I don't want to pay the shackles, I just want you to take the sheep. That's your offering. But If you say, I want to donate. The value of my sheep.
And the priest says, ten shekels. And you say, but I need this sheep. I don't want to part with it, but I still want to give to the Lord. Then he'd say 10 shekels plus 20%. Then you give him the cash.
And so is established based on your Possession. what you can offer. And you'll see that as we go through this, because when you bring the unclean, you can bring an unclean animal. They say, I want to give my donkey to the ministry, to the sanctuary.
Well, the donkey is worth a hundred shekel.
Okay, I need the donkey though. All right, then you have to give. Uh a hundred shekels plus that twenty percent surcharge if it's just monetary.
So either leave the donkey or give the value plus. And it was a very good system. It was all voluntary. Nobody had to do this.
So you couldn't, him and Hogs no fair. and it's put in writing so you know what's happening before you get there.
So there's no bait and switch or markup or anything like that. It was a good system so long as the people. behave themselves. You couldn't get there and say, yeah, but this one's damaged, but I like that one you got over there. There's no bargaining, no haggling.
What you brought is what was going to be the way it goes or else you'll end up The priest would say, Sure, you can buy that one, but you're going to pay them both now. And everybody would know that, and it's likely never happened.
So Apparently, as I look at this and look at Numbers 18, 14, where it says, all that is given to the priests shall belong to them.
Well, that's in relation to food. Uh 2 Kings 12.4. We see the priesthood constituents. People would offer to the Lord that they'd benefit from that. And you wonder, How much of this money went to the priests and how much to the treasuries?
I don't think you can find the answer to that. I think it's a mixture. I think they knew what they were doing, and I think they did the right thing by it, but just Moses didn't. Didn't give us all of the details. And they're really not necessary unless you have.
Unless you just don't trust, you know, like, I don't trust anybody, I need to know. Uh Well, you better get used to faith. Or being faithless. Verse 11: If it is an unclean animal which they do not offer as a sacrifice to Yahweh, then he shall present the animal before the priest. And there's one of the indicators of what's going on here.
And this type of offering. you could bring a camel, You could bring a donkey, you could bring a mule, any of the unclean ones. I'm sure they had. You know, there was you couldn't bring like, I don't know, an iguana.
So what are we going to do with that?
Well, this one knows how to pull a cart. Anyway. Uh I'm sure there were just unspoken rules that they all knew about. We're glad they're not put in print. It would be more reading for us in Leviticus.
Anyway, so he brings his donkey or camel, and the priest says, you know, we can use that camel.
Alright, here you go, it's my offering to God. See, supporting that ministry. But again, if he needs the donkey. But he still wants to give to the Lord. And you know, he probably went there with an idea what the donkey was worth.
He knew it'd be 20% on top of that. And be an offering to the Lord.
So you go to the church, you say, I want to donate, I'm just going to stay with $10. Let's do $100. You bring your $100 car. and we all help you push it in front of the church. Yeah.
Yeah. And you say, okay, that car's worth $100.
Well, I want to donate it to the Lord, but I need it. Good, 'cause he doesn't want that car.
So You'd say, I want to donate this to the Lord. He said, well, it's $100. And he said, okay, good. Here's the $100, and here's the $20 other dollars to go with it, $120. just out of my heart.
I want nothing back. Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus. We're glad you joined us. We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book.
Cross-reference radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so by going to your favorite app store and downloading from there. For any additional information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, Crossreference Radio.com. Make sure to come back again for the upcoming edition in the book of Leviticus, as Pastor Rick has much more to share. We thank you for being with us right here on Cross Reference Radio.
