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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Lectures
Good morning, church.
The scripture reading this morning is from the book of Leviticus, chapter 16, verses 1 through 16, and 29 to 30,
which can be found on pages 99 to 100 of these black church Bibles that we have around the room.
If you don't have a Bible and would like to take one of these, please feel free to do so as a gift to you.
Hear the word of the Lord.
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron's sons when they approached the presence
of the Lord and died. The Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever
he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he
will die because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Aaron is to enter the most holy place
in this way with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to wear a
holy linen tunic and linen undergarments are to be on his body. He is to tie a linen sash around him
and wrap his head with a linen turban. These are holy garments. He must bathe his body with water
before he wears them. He is to take from the Israelite community two male goats for a sin
offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron will present the bull for his sin offering and
make atonement for himself and his household. Next, he will take the two goats and place them before
the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. After Aaron casts lots for the two goats,
one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place, he is to present the goat
chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot for an
uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it by
sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place. When Aaron presents the bull for his sin
offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he will slaughter the bull
for his sin offering then he is to take a fire pan full of blazing coals from the altar before
the lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and bring them inside the
curtain he is to put the incense on the fire before the lord so that the cloud of incense
covers the mercy seat that is over the testimony or else he will die he is to take some of the
bull's blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat. Then he
will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times. When he slaughters
the male goat for the people's sin offering and brings its blood inside the curtain, he will do
the same with its blood as he did with the bull's blood. He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat
and in front of it. He will make atonement for the most holy place in this way for all their sins
because of the Israelites impurities and rebellious acts. He will do the same for the
tent of meeting that remains among them because it is surrounded by their impurities. And then
this is to be a permanent statute for you. In the seventh month on the 10th day of the month
You are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the alien who resides among you.
Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
This is the word of the Lord.
Well, thank you, Lauren. Good morning, everybody.
what's with all the blood? You know, what's with all the rules and the rituals? Like why
is it like this in the Old Testament? It's a question I think a lot of us have. We don't
really say it out loud, or maybe we do. Maybe you say it in your heads. But why is the Old Testament
so soaked in, literally, sacrifice? So much blood, so many animals, so many strange rituals and rules?
And don't get me wrong, we all love the story of sacrifice.
We love stories of sacrifice.
We love Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter.
These all contain different forms of sacrifice, rich stories of sacrifice that lead to good and or salvation.
But do you get the same feeling when you read the book of Leviticus?
Do you get as excited about reading Leviticus as you do Lord of the Rings?
I don't think we do.
Most of us don't.
It can feel confusing, irrelevant, or even unsettling when we're reading it, especially with our Western eyes.
It's less like a hero's journey, more like stepping into a scene where death is everywhere and it's real.
When we read Leviticus, we're put into a context and a culture that is not our own, a world we don't recognize.
And what's interesting about that is that really, in actuality, we are the world that
most of human history and even today's cultures would not recognize.
We are the minority here in the West.
In the 21st century Western world, we're one of the few cultures and moments in history
where sacrificial blood is not the norm.
Blood has been a norm in human history for all of human history, even today in most cultures
of the world.
And it's a norm in the ancient world of Leviticus as well, as we can tell.
Lots of blood and sprinkling of blood, but it's not just randomly throwing blood on the
walls.
The rules and rituals are not meaningless.
They play a purpose in the story.
They tell a single unified story about a single big problem that the people of God are facing.
But in the book of Leviticus, there's also a single story that tells a glorious solution.
Leviticus is telling a story that leads us to the glorious solution of God bringing his
people back to dwell with him.
Leviticus is showing us how God is bringing his people into his presence and how he will
dwell in their midst.
That sounds great, but what's the big problem I alluded to?
What is the big problem?
Well, the problem is you can't just walk into God's presence.
I mean, you can if you want to, but as we'll see, that's not going to work out well for
you here in this story.
You can't just waltz in to God's presence, just like you can't run a half marathon without
training.
I mean, you can, it's not going to go well.
And can you really actually run well without training?
The book of Leviticus is showing us that we need guidance.
We need a handbook to show us, to train us how to enter God's presence.
The book of Leviticus is a book for the people of God in the Old Testament on how to enter God's
presence. And it's a big book. We're in our With God series. We're only taking one sermon to go
through the book of Leviticus. And my aim this morning is to help you understand this book,
even just a little bit more than you did before you came. I want you to know what it is teaching,
why it's in the Bible, and why it's so important for us, even today, even in a culture that doesn't
have sacrificial bloodshed, why it's so important for us thousands of years later.
And for us to begin to understand Leviticus, we have to understand the very beginning of the Bible.
I know, bear with me, we're in week 10 of our With God series,
journeying through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but we need to go back 10 weeks.
We're not going to spend a lot of time there, I promise you. Bear with me.
In the beginning, gosh, this is so cool.
In the beginning, we were created for life with God.
Amen?
We were with God.
God's presence was with us in Eden.
Eden is like this dream in the Old Testament of how life is supposed to be.
Eden is life with God in the presence of God.
We were there.
It was good and it was beautiful, but we sought to take our own goodness and beauty
and that Edenic life was lost
and mankind has been searching
for a way back to Eden
ever since then.
Eden is lost and blood is required.
It's the first time something dies
is to cover Adam and Eve's shame and sin.
A mediator in the form of an animal
is provided for them.
Eden is what has been lost
because of sin and blood
covers the cost.
Friends, this is the thread
we're tracing throughout
the With God series.
God is showing us how to get back to Eden.
He's showing us Eden over and over and over again.
At the start of the With God series, we saw, again, Edenic life.
It's a place where heaven and earth meet together.
It can be viewed as the mountain of God.
Eden can be viewed as a mountain of God.
Eden is the summit of life.
Out of the chaos waters that was the uncreated world, God brought creation.
And he placed Adam and Eve at the top of this mountain with God.
To live in Eden is to live with God in his full presence without fear.
The midst of that mountain soothing your soul just as God's presence soothes you.
But God's presence is not only intimate and life-giving, it's also holy.
And once sinners enter the world, sin enters the world, Adam and Eve, they can't remain.
And so the rest of Genesis, after Adam and Eve come down this mountain of God,
is a cycle over and over and over again of God's people longing for Eden.
Humanity tries to get back on its own terms, but sin only spreads.
Yet God makes a fresh start after the flood.
This was a couple weeks ago, after the flood.
Out of the chaos waters of the flood, God places Noah atop Mount Ararat.
Do you see this pattern here?
It's literally on the screen.
Out of the chaos waters of uncreation, he places Adam on top.
Out of the chaos waters of the flood, once those recede, he places Noah on top of Mount Ararat.
Then Babylon comes.
They try to build another tower up to God, but sin marches forward.
And later, God meets Abraham atop Mount Moriah.
Out of the chaos of the world that Abraham is living in, God meets him on top of this mountain to make a new start.
All of Genesis is us going back to Eden, longing for Eden, getting glimpses of Eden.
God starting a new Eden, Adam in the garden, Noah plants a new garden.
He makes a new start with Abraham.
And all of this time, blood has been present.
Then we get to the Exodus where God's people have been in slavery for 400 years.
And in Exodus, God delivers his people through acts of recreation.
Out of the chaos that is Egypt, God is recreating through plagues and signs and wonders
and bringing his people out of Egypt.
He brings them through the chaotic waters of the Red Sea and then to the foot of Mount Sinai,
the mountain of God.
And there Israel, again, stands at the edge of God's holy presence.
They're there.
They're free from slavery.
They've come through another form of chaos waters,
and they're here at the mountain of God.
But there's a question, because God's thunderous, majestic, scary, lightning presence
dwells on this mountain.
And they ask, who can ascend this mountain?
God's with us, but this is terrifying.
And the answer is Moses.
Moses, the new Adam.
Only he can ascend and commune with God on behalf of the people.
So Genesis is creation and mankind longing for Eden.
Exodus is mankind returning to Eden.
And then they're there with God at Mount Sinai, but he's distant.
He's only through a mediator.
They can't all go up the mountain to be with their God.
And God doesn't want this.
He doesn't want a distant mediator, Moses, who's limited.
He wants to dwell with his people.
So God commands Moses to build a tabernacle, which is like this portable Eden.
It's a portable God's presence, a portable place for God to dwell that will be in the middle of the camp.
And it's there so God can be with his people and his people be with him.
The tabernacle is an Eden-shaped gift for the people of God.
God is drawing near again, life with God.
And so they build it in Exodus, but Exodus ends with a shock.
God's glory descends into this tabernacle, fills the tabernacle.
But Moses can't even enter to be with God.
Not even the most holy man in all of Israel can be in the presence of God.
God is with his people, but he still cannot survive his nearness on their own terms.
He's created a new mountain, a new Eden, but again, who can ascend this mountain?
who can ascend this this tabernacle mountain and even the way the tabernacle is situated
the holy of holies lies on the west and the points west because west is where eden was and so when the
high priest goes in i'm getting way ahead of myself here when the high priest goes in he's going back
to eden this is edenic life with god but no one can enter and exodus ends with god with the exodus
The author of Exodus is saying that God spoke to Moses from the tent of meeting.
He could not enter the tent of meeting.
Praise God the Bible doesn't end there.
The next page is Leviticus, which is showing us that God has opened a way for humanity to dwell with his presence.
God has opened a way for humanity to dwell in his presence.
And the way is not a ladder we climb.
It's God's instructions for how sinners can draw near.
That is what the book of Leviticus is all about.
Leviticus is not a tedious rule book.
I mean, it is.
It's kind of hard to read because of that.
But more than that, it's a story of how God is inviting people back into his presence.
And Leviticus begins with God speaking to Moses from the tent of meeting.
In Exodus, he could not enter, but then in Leviticus chapter 1, verse 1,
the Lord speaks to Moses from the tent of meeting.
The God Moses could not enter in with now summons him
because he's providing access for him.
He's giving him a way.
And here God begins to reveal how his people can re-enter Eden.
Again, Genesis longing for Eden, Exodus returning to Eden,
Leviticus is re-entering Edenic life with God.
how they can reenter life.
But Leviticus also makes it abundantly clear
that the path to life,
the path into God's presence is dangerous.
It's dangerous if you treat it lightly.
It's dangerous if you just waltz in.
I mean, ask Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons.
You can't ask them because they died
from walking into God's presence.
They died because they treated God's presence too lightly.
And so here's how Leviticus 16.1 opens.
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death, after the death, after the death of Aaron's sons
when they approached the presence of the Lord and died.
The Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants.
He can't come whenever he wants into the holy place, behind the curtain, in front of the
mercy seat, on the ark, or else he will die.
Why? Because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
And you can read the story, what kicks off Leviticus 1, what Moses is talking about,
that's back in Leviticus 9 and the beginning of Leviticus 10.
This story has always captivated me.
In Leviticus 9, the people of God, they offer sacrifices.
God gives them all these rules and rituals and they do it.
And then fire comes from the tabernacle and consumes all they have offered.
And they all are terrified, but they also sing and worship and fall on their faces because God
is with his people. Eden is within reach. They are dwelling with God and he is dwelling with
his people. He's in the middle of the camp with them. We're finally here. We're finally
re-entering Eden. This is all they longed for. But not one verse later, it's all ruined.
And Nadab and Abihu are consumed by fire that comes from the tabernacle.
I mean, do you see the parallels?
Israel offers what is good and right.
Israel offers what God commanded them to offer.
Nadab and Abihu offer what God did not command.
God, fire comes from God's presence and consumes what Israel offered.
God comes from, God's fire comes from God's presence and consumes Nadab and Abihu instead of what they offer.
What we see here, friends, is that God's presence is beautiful, but it's also dangerous.
God's presence is beautiful.
It's good.
God's presence is life-giving to his people, but it's also dangerous.
It's beautiful because his nearness to him is life.
Nearness to God is a blessing.
It is a joy.
It does lead to flourishing.
But it's dangerous because his holiness is a consuming fire that burns away everything that is not clean.
And if you are unclean and walk into God's presence, you too will be burned and consumed.
And so at this instance, when Nadab and Abihu's dead, unclean bodies are in the temple,
in the tabernacle, a question arises in the minds of the Israelites. How can you live in God's
presence? How can you live in God's holy presence? Not how can you be in God's holy presence because
Nadab and Abihu, though they're dead, they're with God right now. They're in his presence. But how can
you live in God's presence? How can you enjoy God's presence? Friends, the whole story up to this
point is about God pursuing us and being present with us. And the pursuit of God for his people
reaches its climax in the book of Leviticus. There's a reason that Leviticus is at the center
of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. And even then, there's a reason that the
day of atonement is at the center of that center because all of the scriptures has been building
to this point where God is with his people.
But how can you live in that presence?
That's the driving tension of Leviticus.
That's the question Leviticus is answering.
Leviticus proclaims to us that God has opened a way
for humanity to dwell in his presence.
But how?
How can you live in the presence of a holy God?
Well, again, the answer is Leviticus,
but it's a confusing answer.
Because to live in God's presence, Leviticus says you must be pure.
All the unclean and clean, holy and unholy laws are about this.
All those laws are about the fact that to live in God's presence, you must be pure.
To live in God's presence, you must be pure.
And purity here is not be better or try harder.
It's being made fit for God's nearness.
Now, this is where the Bible gets really weird and probably where most of us have trouble
continuing our Bible reading plans.
I've heard it said one time that Leviticus is where yearly Bible reading plans go to die.
It's a hard read.
I love the book of Leviticus.
It's still really hard to read.
It's here that we learn about clean and unclean animals and fish and birds and insects and
the rules for what to do when you touch these dead things.
We also learn about purification for childbirth, for skin diseases, for contaminated fabrics, objects, and bodily discharges.
How delightful.
I mean, that's a lot, and it's all weird, isn't it?
And the question we have is, is this really going to make me impure?
If I get a cut in my arm and blood comes out, am I really impure because of that?
If a family member dies and I have to handle their dead body, does that make me impure?
The answer is yes, it does.
But the key here is that impurity does not equal sin.
It might not feel right.
And in fact, it feels demeaning and limiting and wrong to say that these things make one
impure, but impurity is not sinful.
It's not sinful.
It's not making a claim on your moral standing.
Instead, impurity is a reminder that because of sin, there exists mortality and death in
the world.
That's what these laws are about.
Not to shame you for bleeding or whatever it might be, but to remind you death is present in the world.
Because of sin, there exists mortality and death in the world.
And the purity laws show Israel that they are living in a world where death is present.
Bodies break down.
They're in bodies that break down.
They're living with sickness and decay and loss.
And they're living in a space where all that's normal for them.
but it should not be that way. And so the lesson is not that bodies are bad. The lesson is that
death is invasive. Death is invasive. Death contaminates. Death pushes everything away
from Eden because Eden is life. And if there's death, death is away from Eden. And when you come
in contact with what is impure, you kind of carry with you this aura of death, one scholar says.
You kind of have that, it kind of hangs on you.
And if you have that aura of death, well, you can't be in Eden.
And you are pushed away from Eden, from God's presence.
Why? Because God is holy.
God is the author and creator of life.
He's set apart. He's unique.
And in him, there's purity and justice and goodness and life.
Therefore, what is impure, what is unjust, what is evil,
whatever is not life, whatever is death,
cannot come into contact with God's presence.
And if it does, then God's presence burns away what does not belong.
Think again to Nadab and Abihu.
A helpful illustration for this is a fire that refines gold.
A fire is good when it's contained and used for its purpose.
It provides heat and light.
It can take something valuable and purify it.
But that same fire is also dangerous.
If you get too close to it, if you put your hand into that fire, it's not going to negotiate with you.
It's not going to say, well, you probably shouldn't do that.
No, your hand's just going to disappear.
It'll burn away whatever does not belong there.
And in the hands of a skilled refiner, it purifies.
Fire doesn't exist to destroy gold, for example.
It exists to remove the dross from gold, the impurities from gold.
But the only way that gold becomes pure is by burning away those impurities.
this is the same with God's holy presence his presence is life-giving and good but because
he is holy his nearness consumes whatever is unclean and so the tension remains if impurity
is present if it's this pervasive if we cannot manage it by our own sheer willpower if death
is this close we cannot clean our way back into God's presence then so what's the answer
how do you become pure if the problem is deeper than our effort what hope do we have
we need more than instructions what we need is intervention we need someone or something to step
in for us we need a substitute
and that's what God provides on the day of atonement
God provides a once a year
blood-soaked, mercy-shaped day
showing us that to live in God's presence
we need a substitute
and on the day of atonement
God provides a substitute
to make atonement, to wipe clean
what has been dirtied throughout the year
not to dismiss it, not to tolerate it
but to literally wipe it clean
and he provides this atonement
in the form of two goats
Aaron cast lots for these two goats
and one lot for the Lord
and the other for an uninhabitable place
and he said to present the goat
chosen by lot for the Lord
and sacrifice it as a sin offering
but the goat chosen by a lot
for an uninhabitable place
boy that's a mouthful
is to be presented a lie before the Lord
to make atonement with it
by sending it into the wilderness.
There's these two goats.
One is a scapegoat
and one is a sacrificial goat.
Here's what verse 8 of Leviticus 16 says.
Aaron cast lots of the two goats,
one lot for the Lord,
one for the uninhabitable place.
The goat chosen by lot for the Lord
and sacrifice is a sin offering.
The goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place
is to be presented a lie before the Lord
to make atonement by sending it into the wilderness.
Again, what's with all the blood?
What's with all the goats?
What's with all the animal sacrifice?
There's a tradition that the goat that was sent to the wilderness
was later pushed off a cliff to make sure it never came back.
It's all this animal death.
I mean, it's one thing to read about it,
but I mean, put yourself there.
Imagine me up here with a bucket of blood
just sprinkling you with blood.
That's disgusting.
It's so gross.
but in ancient times, it wasn't.
This was normal.
Death was around them all the time.
And remember, this is just not normal for us
in the 21st century West.
Death was around them all the time.
Blood was around them all the time.
To them, blood was life.
And the stains of sin and death
need to be washed away with the blood of life.
Leviticus 16, 16.
He will make atonement for the most holy place in this way for all their sins
because the Israelites impurities and rebellious acts
to cleanse and set it apart from the Israelites impurities.
That is the temple.
He'll make atonement for the most holy place in this way for all their sins.
You see, friends, the high priest who's consecrated by God
ascends the mountain of God that is the tabernacle, goes into the Holy of Holies,
and washes away all impurities of sin and death with the blood of life.
Then there's again that second goat, the one sent into the wilderness.
But first, that second goat, that scapegoat is given all of Israel's sins.
Aaron places two hands on its head and confesses all the sins of Israel onto this goat.
The goat takes sin and drives it into outer darkness from whence it came.
The goat takes sin and is driven away from the camp.
The first goat is for God, redemption, and a tabernacle.
But the second goat is for banishment.
Verse 21, Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the Israelites' iniquities and rebellious acts, all of their sin, all of their sin.
He said, put them on the goat's head and send it away by the man appointed for the task.
The goat will carry all their iniquities into a desolate land, and the man will release it there.
The goat is not the sinner, but he gets the blame.
He carries the sin.
What an unfortunate task.
And through this goat, all our sin is thrown back out into darkness.
Sin cannot live where God lives.
And so God sends our sin out to a place where no one lives, out into the wilderness.
He sends it east, opposite of Eden, opposite of life, opposite of the presence of God.
And now you may be thinking, does all this really actually work?
How can that goat achieve forgiveness?
Like when they did this, did this actually do anything?
It's a valid question.
Could this possibly work?
Does sprinkling blood really appease and atone for sin?
There's two things to keep in mind.
One, God is showing them what their sin costs, namely a life.
And you can offer your own life for your sin.
You can die.
That's an option.
Or someone can die for you.
But also when we ask that question of does this really work, we're on the right track.
And if we conclude it doesn't really work, we're not that wrong.
Because Hebrews 10.4 agrees with us.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Now, it's not as if God is having them do something that doesn't actually work.
But the New Testament writer is saying that is not the final solution.
Leviticus 16 builds on us a longing.
Because if this were the final solution, it wouldn't be repeated, would it?
Yet it must be repeated every single year.
Every year the priest must do it again.
The blood must be offered again.
The scapegoat must carry sin away again.
And the repetition is the point because deep down they know this is not the final solution for our sin.
This is not the final Eden.
This is a dynamic life experience, but this is not the end.
This day is real mercy, but it's not the end.
It's a shadow, a sign, a longing for final redemption.
The day of atonement is God whispering to his people,
yes, I've brought you into my presence,
but one day I will provide a better priest.
One day I will provide, I will provide better blood.
One day I will cleanse you completely.
One day I will fully restore Eden and open it up for good.
Friends, the day of atonement shows us that it takes a lot of work to enter God's presence.
Shows us we need a true and final substitute, a true and final priest who will make this atonement.
God has provided a way in Leviticus, shown his people again and again, how to be in their presence.
But really, if we want to be in the presence of God, we need God to do all the work for us.
And friends, this is the God we have.
Because God himself comes as the ultimate substitute.
God himself comes as the ultimate substitute.
We can't understand Leviticus without looking ahead
to the God who will eventually do all the work of atonement himself.
Who comes and fulfills what the day of atonement could only symbolize.
And his name is Jesus.
He's a true high priest who enters the presence of God on behalf of his people.
He's a true sacrifice whose blood is not borrowed from an animal,
but his own blood is poured out on behalf of his people.
Jesus is a lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world,
offering true and final atonement.
And by his blood, we have full and unlimited access to the presence of God.
And friends, in the mystery of all mysteries, this is so mysterious to me,
we don't just have access to that presence.
That presence lives in us.
That presence that consumed Nadab and Abihu, it's inside of you.
And yet you are not consumed.
Why is that?
Has God's presence been watered down?
No.
What has changed is our great high priest has washed us and made us wholly clean.
There is nothing to burn away because you are cleansed by his blood,
if you believe in his name.
He sprinkled his blood on the tabernacle that is your heart
to make it fit for God's presence to dwell in it.
We don't have to sacrifice animals.
We don't have to go to a temple.
You don't need a priest or a pastor to draw near to God's presence.
In fact, only Aaron could go in only once a day or one day every year.
But you have that presence in you now.
We can enter every day anywhere with boldness because of Jesus and live, not just be in God's presence, but live in God's presence.
So what do we do about that?
Well, first, if you want God, if you want God's presence, then go to Jesus.
If you want God, go to Jesus.
There is no access to God without him.
You need his blood.
You need his life.
You need his forgiveness.
If you've never done that, you can do that now.
Tell him you believe, confess your sin to him, ask for forgiveness, and live.
Live, experience a taste of Eden.
Let him be your sacrifice and scapegoat and your life and your joy.
If you want God, go to Jesus.
But second, if you have Jesus, then go to God boldly.
If you have Jesus, go to God boldly.
I mean, sometimes, this is so true of me sometimes,
I don't want to approach God's presence.
It's scary.
I'm not pure.
I am also a sinner.
And it should be a little scary because friends,
if you go into God's presence without the washed blood of Jesus over you,
you will be consumed.
If you enter God's presence, whether in this life or the next,
without Jesus' blood covering you, you will be consumed for eternity.
So it is scary.
But if we have Jesus and we have that blood washing us,
we don't need to be afraid.
We can go to God boldly.
You don't have to cower.
You don't have to hide.
You don't have to hold back how you're feeling or what you need
because Jesus' blood has washed you and you're in the presence of God.
You have full and complete access always.
Access to the always listening, always loving, always near presence of God.
What do you need to talk to him about?
You have access to talk to him about that thing.
What do you need to ask him for?
Well, you have access to ask him for those things.
If you have Jesus, you can go to God boldly.
Finally, if you can go to God boldly, then what do you lack?
If you can be in the presence of God and go to God, then what do you lack?
If this is true, if we can really go to God who loves you,
the sovereign Lord, the good Lord of the universe,
if we can go to him boldly, then what could you possibly lack in this life?
Nothing.
He's always with us.
Even the priest couldn't go to God without doing all this bloody work.
But now God has done this work for us.
Our God doesn't just live in temples or churches, but in his people.
The very presence of God, the same presence that could get you killed if you entered lightly,
is now in all who trust Jesus.
He's with you.
He's with you always in the doctor's office, in the hallways at school.
As you prepare for that meeting or struggle with that colleague,
he's with you as you change diapers and have hard conversation.
He's with you in temptation.
And not only is he with you in that, he knows what that's like.
He's with you in loneliness and depression, and he knows what that's like too.
He's with you in fear, disappointment, your greatest longings.
He's with you at the top of the mountain of life and even in the lowest valleys.
God is with you.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your presence that draws near to us.
God, that you saw fit to wash us clean with your blood
so that we could live life with you.
God, help us to understand Leviticus more deeply
so that we can live life with you.
God, just grace us with your presence this morning and forever.
In Jesus' name, amen.