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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. These were called days of awe. Yom Kippur was not a joyful day. It was a mournful day. It was a day of introspection.
It was a day of meditation. It was a day of confession of sin. Nobody said "Happy Yom Kippur." Happy Yom Kippur. It wasn't happy. It was mournful.
It was the one day a year, and still is, where Orthodox Jews fast for a period of twenty-five hours—a whole day. Why twenty-five? I want to make sure they cover the entire day.
So the ten days between these two festivals, Rosh Hashanah, beginning of the new year, Yom Kippur. Those ten days are called days of repentance. What happened? The high priest bathed. The high priest dressed in special ceremonial garb.
He sacrificed a bull, sacrificed a ram, and took two goats. And that's where we get into chapter sixteen and seventeen. The first goat was killed. It was killed because that one goat, the blood was a substitute for the nation. It was receiving the punishment of the nation for their sin, so that the nation wouldn't have to die.
The second goat is called the scapegoat. I'm sure you've heard of that. If you haven't heard of the biblical scapegoat, you've heard of the modern idiom we say, "Well, you're using me as a scapegoat." This is where it comes from. It was the second goat on Yom Kippur, and the priest walked up to it, laid his hands on the head of the goat, confessed the sins of the nation.
So it was like all of the sins were being transferred to the goat. Then. The goat went into the wilderness, chapter sixteen, verse twenty-one. And Aaron lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confessed over it the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions. That would take a while.
Concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. I've been in Judea before, and I had the privilege of getting in a jeep, and I was taken out of Jerusalem through the Judean desert, through the foothills, to the stations, to where they would have fires that would be signal fires to watch the scapegoat go in the wilderness.
So they would let it go in the wilderness. Once it got out of sight, you know, the priests would. Way back to the guy upon the little pinnacle, he'd light his fire. The guy on the next pinnacle, a little higher up, closer to Jerusalem, would see that fire. He'd light his fire.
The guy on the pinnacle, a little bit closer to Jerusalem, higher up, would light his fire. All the way back to the city of Jerusalem. When the people in the city, in the temple, when that was built, when they saw. That the scapegoat had vanished from sight, all the people in the temple jumped and shouted praises to God, as if to say, "Our sins are taken away." Now, quickly, the scapegoat is the hope of the new covenant. It's the hope of the new covenant.
What do I mean by that?
Well, this happened every what? David' torment happened every. Year every year every year just like there's a sacrifice or two every day, and there's festivals every few months, every year this happened every year, every year every year every year year after year generation after generation, but Jeremiah thirty one predicts a new covenant, Jeremiah thirty one I will make a new covenant. With Israel, I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more.
It anticipates a time in the future where it won't be like the covenant of the law anymore, having to do this over and over again. But God will take their sin and remove it completely, not cover it over. That's what the blood of sacrifices, animals did. They just sort of covered it over. But remove it completely.
The scapegoat, Jesus Christ, once and for all, would take the sin away. That's the new covenant. Leviticus 17 explains why. Why was all this done? In fact, why all the blood in this book?
Why every chapter? It's about blood and sacrifice and priests going through the ritual. Verse eleven of chapter seventeen explains why. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
So blood was sacred. Why? Because blood was its life. The animal's life is its blood, so the basis of approach is by blood.
Now, this tells us something about the law, and I think you really get it from Leviticus. The purpose of the law is not to show us how approachable God is, but exactly the opposite. The purpose of the law is to show us how unapproachable God is. You just don't hop in and go, "Hi, God, it's me." Dead. You have to go to a priest.
You have to bring a sacrifice. It has to be done a certain way. Every little detail has to be in place for that to happen. If you don't approach God with blood, then what do you approach God with? What do you got?
See this. See this is the thing. And when I have conversations with Jewish friends, I bring this up. Hey, you guys don't have sacrifice anymore. When was the last time you brought a Levitical sacrifice to a temple and had it killed for your sin?
What do you do about your sin? You know what the answer of most people is. Most religious people, good works. Good works. I try hard.
I try to outweigh more good works than bad works. That's religion. Religion is about earning your way to God, praying your way to God, sweating your way to God, making a pilgrimage to please God. The gospel is trust your way to God. Just by simple faith, believe in the Lamb slain for your sin, Jesus Christ.
Trust in Him; He'll take it away. It's not by your works; it's by what He has done.
So, chapter one through seventeen, the way to God through sacrifice.
Now, chapters eighteen through twenty-seven is the second part, a walk with God through. What's the word I gave you? Sanctification. Sanctification. What does sanctification mean?
Holiness. Holiness, or to be set apart. I heard somebody shout that out. Thanks for the shout out. Holiness is paramount.
You know why? Because God knows the truth that you and I need to know. Holiness is your key to happiness. Holiness is your key to. I want to be a happy person.
Get holy. Pursue the Lord. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not yours. His, and all these things will be added unto you. You want a happy life?
Live a holy life. That's sanctification. Leviticus chapter nineteen verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.' The basic idea of the word holy, kodesh in Hebrew, is what somebody shouted out: set apart. It's for a particular use.
It doesn't mean that you wear a halo. That you float off the ground, that you have a beatific smile, that's not holiness. That's just goofiness. It just means you are set apart. Your life is now pushed over into one corner to be used for God's purpose and for God's glory.
That's holiness. Example at home, I have, I have a dish or a vessel. Called a French press, you that are coffee aficionados, you know what that is, right? It's a little carafe, mine's made out of glass, has a little filter in it. You push it down, it separates the beans and puts the beans in the water.
Good coffee.
Now my French press unit is holy. What I mean by that is I don't put tea bags in my French press. I don't do hot chocolate in that. I I save it for the holy bean. I put coffee beans ground a certain way in my French press.
It is set apart for a particular purpose.
So, for instance, in Exodus chapter forty, there are holy utensils, holy garments. Holy altars, holy basins. That's the idea.
So the best idea for us, when God is saying, "I want you to be holy," be different. Be different from the world. We say, "What do you mean, be different? Be a nonconformist." I remember when I was younger. I um.
You know, compared to a tree, I am young.
So, but when I was younger, I prided myself in being a non-conformist, and I discovered that the most non-conformist person anybody could be in this world is to be a Christian. You are swimming in the opposite direction of this world. You want to be a non-conformist. And that's how God wants you to live. Don't don't conform to this world.
It says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So be a non-conformist, and that's the idea of holiness. Another way to think of holiness, or being holy, is being whole. W h o l e, wholeness. Is a good way to look at holiness.
Somebody whose whole is complete, mature, well-rounded. A holy person is that kind of a person. What's the first step to holiness? It's called repentance. You're going your way, the world's way.
You're going one direction. God says, "Stop. Turn around. Go my way." That's the first step toward being different from the world.
So chapters eighteen through twenty deal with moral laws and consequences for breaking the moral laws. Chapter twenty one and twenty two more regulations for the priests, more regulations for the high priest, the big kahuna. Chapter twenty three are regulations about annual festivals, annual feasts. This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Want to understand your Bible better without getting lost in all the details?
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Now let's return to today's teaching.
Now I want to bring the plane down a little bit again, because when we deal with some of the ancient feasts, there's principles here about. Our celebration, our going to church. Chapter twenty-three, verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. Look at this; these are my feasts.
Lord, I'm going to go to church. I'm going to my church. God saying it's my church." Every church that bears the name of Christ and preaches the true gospel is His church. It's not your church; it's His church. I'm going to, for me to get edified.
This is my time. God's saying it's my feast, my time. Go down to verse forty.
Now we're talking about one of the feasts: the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. Remember how they would camp out for a week. It's in the fall, and you shall take for yourself on the first day. The fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, the willows of the brook.
Now watch this. And you shall what? That's a commandment. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. I want you to have a party for a week.
That's why the kids love this week in Israel. It's like we're camping out. We're going to have a party for seven days, and God gives a command: "You shall rejoice." Boy, I wish Christians would underline that verse in Leviticus and make that one of our life verses. To be around some church folks, you think you are witnessing an autopsy. It's like I'm a Christian.
I'm dead. I have no emotion. I'm serious. I'm sober. Get over it.
Be happy. Rejoice, man. We have all the reason that the world doesn't have to be rejoicing, joyful people. Worship isn't an obligation. Did you know that 18 times in the Book of Psalms, 18 times, it says make a joyful shout or make a joyful noise.
That's again a commandment that God gives. And I've noticed the bars have this thing. I've driven by bars for years. I always notice that same goofy sign. Happy hour.
When is happy hour anyway? Anybody know? What? I'm not trying. You thought I was trying to bust you, didn't you?
Okay.
Okay.
I kind of was, but. They call it happy hour. I mean, that's not happy hour. There's nothing happy about that hour. I'm in a bar for an hour.
That's not happy. Church ought to be happy hour. This is happy hour. Charles Spurgeon said, "Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people. A cheerful people is in keeping with His nature." Now we discover something else.
We discover that holiness is practical. Chapters twenty-five and twenty-six. See, we're almost at the end of the book. It's so practical. It gives you laws on how to treat workers.
People that you have to employ for a period of time to get them out of debt, how to treat them, how to relieve debt in the tribes and in the culture, and how to let the land recover the farmland after it's been plowed and reaped for a number of years, which takes us to chapter twenty-five, verse eight, which brings up an interesting word called the year of jubilee.
Now the word jubilee. Our word "jubilee" comes from a Hebrew word "yobel." Can you hear that in there? "Jubilee yobel," yobel literally means a ram, because a trumpet was a ram's horn.
So this is a—it's called a shofar, right? You've seen one of these. Usually, the real ones are short. They just sell these big ones in Israel because they look cool and they know Americans will buy them.
So.
So this was the trumpet that was raised, and on the year of jubilee, year of freedom, the year of release, the ram's horn was blown. Year of jubilee. By the way, next Wednesday, Yom Kippur also was a. As soon as it was done, it was the time to blow the shofar.
So, should I do it? That's it. Show far, show good.
So, the year of jubilee, as we bring this to a close, the year of jubilee was a way of bringing equity back to the land. Verse eight: You shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven sabbaths of years. Shall be to you forty nine years.
So forty nine years. The next year is the jubilee. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day of atonement.
So we had to do it again next Wednesday. You shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.
So the way of getting the land back to the tribes that was lost because of debt that was incurred was every fiftieth years you push fiftieth year you push the reset button goes back to. The tribe, it's a do-over. Interesting thought. Not only were all slaves free on the jubilee year, all debts were canceled, and the land reverted back to its original owner. I read, I read that jubilee years have been recorded since 1393 BC.
That's when they started counting these 49 plus one cycles, and that. Jesus, when he went into the synagogue in Nazareth, spoke his little sermon from Isaiah chapter sixty-one in the year of jubilee. Which would be very interesting because the wording is this: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And then he closed the book and said, "That is fulfilled." In your hearing, he came to set the captives free. Thank you, Ten, who like that truth.
Chapter twenty-six is the iffy chapter. The word "if" is used a lot. If you do this, if you do that, if you do this, if you do that, then I'll do this and I'll do that.
So it's the ify chapters. The word "if" occurs nine times. The words "I will" that is God saying He'll do something because of it twenty four times.
Now Leviticus ends, and it ends with in chapter twenty seven heartfelt worship. When you want to dedicate something to God, you don't have to do it. You just want to do it. It's like you know I want to give this to God. I don't need this.
This is extra. I want to just give it to the Lord. Verse one.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel. Say to them, when a man consecrates by vow certain persons to the Lord according to your valuation." Verse fourteen. And when a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord. Verse sixteen: If a man dedicates to the Lord part of a field of his possession. Verse twenty-eight: It says, "No devoted offering—that's that free will offering.
No devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast." Or field of his possession shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord. Go down to the last verse, verse thirty-four. These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. God is saying, "Is I want worship that is voluntary.
I want you to want to do it. I don't like people who try to pump it up." Come on, you ought to be worshiping. Just you know, if you're not into it, then just don't. Maybe you're having a bad day. Maybe you found a horrible diagnosis, so you're not as happy feeling.
That's okay. Still, even if it's a little bit, just you know, rejoice in the Lord and tell Him you trust Him, even if you're in a very weak state. But it should be voluntary. And I've had bad experiences. People try to orchestrate worship.
And pumping up like a bad tire.
Now, by the New Testament times, this practice of devoting things to the Lord got weird. It's called korban. Ever heard that term? Mark chapter ten. Jesus nailed the Pharisees on this.
He said, you know, the fifth commandment says honor your father and your mother, but if you say Corban that is dedicated to God, you get out of honoring your mom and dad.
So, you could say, well, you know what, my couch, that's Corban, I've dedicated to God. That shofar, don't touch that, I dedicated that to God. My 18 BMWs, Corban, I've dedicated to God.
So your parents say, gosh, you got 18 BMWs and I'm starving. Oh, mom and dad, I'd love to help you and give you one of my cars, but I've dedicated them all to God, and I've dedicated all my food to God and all my money to God.
So you're out of luck, because that's God's. See how it got weird?
So Jesus said, "You are dishonoring your father and mother because of that law." Now, how did it get so wonky? As time went on, something called the oral law emerged, and one of the sayings in the oral law was this: "The words of the scribes are more lovely than the words of the law." That's the tendency of any movement, any religious expression, is to let the sayings. Or, or the the ideas of man usurp the authority of the word of God, and I pray this church always stays tethered to the word of God.
So, as we close tonight, I just want to ask you a quick question: Are you like my French press? Have you dedicated your life to the Lord? Do you belong to Him? Are you set apart for His glory? Are you holy?
Are you walking with Him in holiness? We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget about Pastor Skip's brand new devotional, Soaring Above It All. This one-year devotional gives you a panoramic view of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, helping you better understand God's Word and stay engaged with it every day. Request your copy as our thanks when you give fifty dollars or more to help bring clear Bible teaching to people around the world.
Give today at connectwithSkip dot com slash offer or call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. See you next time. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times. What if your next trip didn't just take you somewhere new, but brought Scripture to life? Join Skip and Lenya Heitzig for an unforgettable tour of Israel, April 5 through 16, 2027.
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