Leviticus: A Lavish Grace to a Needy People | Student Pastor: Sam Rapp

Well, you learn a lot of lessons from dad.

My old man, dudes, as we used to call him, here's a picture of him and I.

I used to be really cute back in the day.

I don't know what happened.

He left me with an awful lot of wisdom.

A couple things that came to mind this week as I was thinking about it is things he left me.

Don't spend more than you make.

Put others' needs above your own.

Work hard.

Memories are probably more important gifts than stuff.

Never speak unkindly to your wife.

And most important, don't you dare cook a steak above medium rare.

And the church said, Amen.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

The lesson that I might have taken the heart the most from old dudes is the importance of last words.

I realized at a young age that my dad said, love you, every single time him and I parted ways.

And that could have been for dropping me off at baseball, youth group, wherever it might have been.

We might have been leaving each other for 15 minutes and without fail every single time.

Those were the two words I heard him say last.

And most of the time it was really sweet.

When I was 14 and trying to be cool, it was probably a little annoying, but in all of it, I found that it was notable.

And so I finally asked him, I said, Hey Dad, why do you always say love you when you say goodbye to somebody?

To me especially.

And he said, I'll never forget it.

He said, You never know when it's the last time you're gonna see somebody.

And so I want everyone I love to know and be convinced that I love them.

Last words have power.

And you know what the deepest thing I continually remember about him is?

Is that he loves me.

Some movies have gotten the hang of last words really well, like Casablanca's Louis.

I think this is the beginning of a really beautiful friendship.

Or Back to the Future, I love this one.

Rhodes, we're going, we don't need Rhodes.

Or E.T., I'll be right here.

The last words stick with you, and this morning we see our guy, Moses, again, the end of Leviticus, where Moses, still on Mount Sinai, is giving the people of God the last words of this book.

We've been studying this book, Leviticus, for the last six months or so, and as we've been talking about and seeing week in and week out, is the big issue of Leviticus is this a holy God and an unholy people, so how can they dwell together?

This book, the book that often kills Bible reading plans, uh, has shown us the answer is this a lot of rules, a lot of commandments, a lot of sacrifice, and above all, an awful lot of grace.

That's what we've seen.

So we pick up here in Leviticus 26, pick up in verses 3 through 10 with me.

It's a bit of a read.

God says this if you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land securely, and I will give you peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid, and I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you.

You shall eat old store, long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.

So, point number one is this Israel's covenant faithfulness leads to God's superabundant blessing.

Israel's covenant faithfulness leads to God's superabundant blessing.

So the section that we just read begins with a big important word, if.

Israel, if you obey, it's gonna go really well.

And then the thing is, in this passage, all the verbs are plural, so it's it's not about an individual Israelite's personal obedience in their relationship with the Lord.

It's primarily about the entirety of the nation's obedience.

Almost every time you see the word you in this passage, it could be more like Georgian, it could be y'all.

Alright, so this is a very Georgian passage from Moses here.

And every blessing here gets better and better and better.

It begins with rains in their season, like that well-timed rain we finally got Wednesday afternoon for my grass.

I love that.

But God will send rains at the right time of year so that the harvest will grow to be the most plentiful.

Israel, you're gonna eat your food in plenty.

And not only that, hey, you're gonna have peace in the land because an awful lot of food, but without security, is not very helpful.

And so God goes deeper in the promise of blessing.

Not only will you have a lot of food, you're gonna be protected.

You're gonna have peace in the land.

You'll be able to sleep at night not having a care in the world.

Wouldn't that be great?

You'll have nothing to be afraid of.

And then God goes further, I will remove all the beasts from the field.

And there's gonna be no one attacking you by the sword.

So God's promising here, hey, Israelites, if you just obey this word, you're gonna have more food than you know what to do with.

You're gonna have nobody attacking you, you'll have peace in the land and from all harm.

And you know what a lot of food and a lot of security creates for a people?

A rapidly growing and multiplying people.

What was God's promise to Abram all those years earlier?

Pick up in Genesis 12 with me.

Verse 2, he says this, and I will make of you, this is Moses still talking, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

So this promise of blessing here in Leviticus 26 would have brought all the Israelites back to this famous story they heard about Father Abraham.

Hey, remember when God showed up to Abram and said he's gonna make us a great nation?

When they heard Leviticus 26, their eyes would have been brought right back to this moment when God made this promise.

The Israelites obey, they would see the covenant to Abram fulfilled.

A great nation in the land promised, with abundance and peace.

But God's promise gets better.

Pick up in verse 11 with me.

And if you highlight or mark in your Bible, this is a really good spot to do that.

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor or hate you.

And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should walk not be their slaves, and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk wreck.

So, point number two is this the treasure of God's blessing is God's indwelling presence.

So God says, Hey, Israel, if you just obey my word, I will shower you with food, with abundance, with plenty.

You're gonna have more than you know what to do with, but not only that, you're gonna have peace, and then not only that, I will be there.

Which means you're gonna have full access to me, unhindered, the author of giver and giver of life and all things good.

And this is the ultimate goal.

This is what the covenant is all about is the people of God with God.

Grace and I have two little nephews and two nieces, and every year for Christmas, we give them each a little gift, and part of the gift is like a truck or Legos or something, and then the other part of the gift is we get a sleepover with them.

Um, and the most important part of the sleepover, and if you have siblings, you can say amen to this.

Your siblings aren't invited, just you and aunt and uncle, Sam and Grace.

And each time we have them come with any five things in the whole world that they want to do, whatever five things, and then they pick the restaurant.

All of them picked La Puria, by the way, which I think is hilarious.

Hey, pick any five things you want to do.

No questions asked, we'll do it.

They could say anything.

And by our rules, we have to do it.

We make the rules, and they would have we would have to do it.

So if they said, hey, Sam and Grace, we want to go to Houston's and get a fillet, medium rare, uh, say, okay, I gotta do it.

But when the world was set before them, this little three, five, seven-year-old, they could do anything they wanted.

You know what each of them said?

They each said what any little kid would say.

They want to do their favorite things, they want to color, they want to build Legos, they want to play catch, and they want to make friendship bracelets.

The things they always do, day in and day out, they just want Uncle Sam and Aunt Grace right there with them.

There's a couple pictures uh from our sleepovers that I'm gonna show y'all, so that's one that's why.

That's a couple moments that we had with them because the the biggest thing that they got from this Christmas present was not a thing, it was our uninterrupted, undistracted, and fully focused presence with them.

And that's the greatest gift to a little kid.

To be with somebody that you love.

The ultimate treasure to this messy and broken and beat-up people in Israel is the uninterrupted, unchanging, and loving presence of the God who called them to himself.

The English translation of verse 11 says, I will make my dwelling among you, but a better translation would be, I will make my tabernacle among you, and to the people of God who only saw the priests go into the holy place in the tabernacle.

This would have been the best news.

Hey, Israel, my full, uninterrupted presence, the holiest place, is right here with you.

In the Gospel of John, about 1500 years after these events in Leviticus, John writes something very similar to Leviticus 26.

Look at this in John 1 with me.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

So we see John explaining Jesus, the word of God, the self-declaration of God, and John says that he, Jesus, dwelt among us, and a better translation again could be He tabernacled among us, which means that Jesus is even more clearly fulfilling the law in this way, the blessing of Leviticus 26.

About 30 years later, this same apostle John sees a picture of what heaven is going to be like.

And he writes this look at this in Revelation 21 with me.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

Which would have been really good news, because that means there's no more chaos.

Verse 2, and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And look at this.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Think you're picking up with me.

Whenever it says dwelling place here, it's talking about God saying, I will be their tabernacle with them.

He will tabernacle with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The presence of God with his people is the ultimate promise of the gospel.

And King David would say in Psalm 16 that in God's presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

That's not the way we think about the presence of God often.

And that's because he is the most compassionate and merciful being there is.

And compassion fuels good faith.

Ultimately, getting to the point of God's presence is the treasure of the covenant.

That's the treasure.

And then he closes his covenant promise of blessing with a self-declaration and a reminder to this people hey, here's how far you've come.

He says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves, and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.

So, Israelites, stand with your heads held high.

I have set you free, I have removed the chains that once held you captive off of your shoulders, and above all the treasure, I am with you.

So, hey, keep your chin up.

It's going to be okay.

The promise of the gospel is the full, unhindered, compassionate presence of God available to you in your mess today.

I love how we say in the confessional prayer so we go to the Lord in confession, not needing to grovel in guilt, and what that means is we know we're sinners.

We know that we messed up this week and this morning.

We're not as put together as we'd like to be.

But the gospel promises that we don't have to beat ourselves up.

That, oh, if only I feel guilty enough, then I can return to God.

I'll justify myself before him, and then he'll accept me.

We're actually freed in Jesus to go exactly in our mess as we are.

And then Moses in Leviticus 26, he makes a bit of a turn here, shifting into the discipline for Israel's disobedience.

And again, all of it's plural.

So whenever you see you, think y'all.

Read 14-15 with me.

But if you will not listen to me, will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors or hates my rules, so that you will not do my commandments but break my covenant.

So God here shifts from blessing to cursing or discipline.

And the root of this cursing, the discipline is right here.

If you don't do my commandments, if you don't listen, then he fleshes it out a little bit with one of the most important phrases in the section that kind of helps us make sense of it.

If your soul hates my rules, if your soul hates my rules.

So the ultimate issue here is not of outward moral conformity, the issue here is the hearts of the Israelites, whether or not they really love the word that God gives to them.

And is that not exactly what happened to Eve in the garden?

All those years before God makes Adam and Eve in their image, makes them beautiful in his image, and he gives them this big, beautiful garden with all sorts of trees to eat.

All of it is available to them.

Eat whatever you want.

But hey, there is this one tree, and it's right in the middle of the garden, and you just can't eat from that one, but every other tree you can eat from.

It's interesting that he puts it in the middle of the garden because that might mean that Adam and Eve had to walk by it every single day.

Notice it.

But even as they walked by it, they weren't lacking.

They were safe to know that the outside of the garden was all available to them.

All of the trees would have been really good looking to eat from.

But hey, just there's this one right here in the middle.

You just can't have that one.

And then that agent serpent Satan, he shows up as he always does, and he shows up to Eve.

Adam is notably nowhere in sight.

And he asks the question that he likes to ask everyone Did God actually say?

Did God actually say?

This serpent's question is getting to this point.

Hey, Eve, you know what you really want.

You, you, Eve, you know the path to true life.

Not God, he's just trying to limit you.

You know that if you eat from that tree, it's gonna make all your dreams come true.

You'll be like God even.

God is just trying to keep you from being happy.

He's trying to keep you from joy.

He's not a God of fullness of joy and pleasures forever.

This is exactly what's happening in Leviticus 26.

There's something better, Israelites, maybe.

God says it even clearly.

If your soul hates my rules, if you hate my word, you will not do my commandments.

Begins with the condition of the heart, and here's what Derek Tidball on this writes.

He says, Moses had continually spoken the words of God.

The children of Israel were distinguished from other nations, and that they had received the oracles or word of God and had covenanted to live by them.

To be the people of God meant that they were people of the Word of God.

Their refusal to listen was the fundamental error from which all other difficulties flowed.

So, point number three, all sin is rooted in unbelief that God's word is good.

All sin is rooted in unbelief that God's word is good.

So God then, from this, gives five curses that will come upon the people of Israel if they continue on in disobedience.

And remember, all their disobedience is not ultimately about moral conformity, it's way more about whether or not they're gonna love God's word.

And even after each curse, God gives a moment to return.

He begins each curse with, hey, even still you can come back.

Even if you won't listen, you can still come back.

And in the midst of this discipline, God's entire goal is not just to punish his people, his goal is to rekindle their love for his word.

And trust that his ways are good.

And then that would produce obedience.

It's having the safe base there.

Hebrews 12, 6 says that God disciplines those he loves.

It's actually out of his protective love and grace that he is disciplining them.

It would be far worse for God to just let them go altogether.

If you have a kid, you're not gonna let him just run into traffic.

You're gonna go grab them.

Each of these five curses gets worse as they go, much like how the blessings got better and better.

They begin with the broken covenant, and then in succession, these curses undo the blessings that were just given.

The curses begin with droughts and with poor harvests, which would have undid the promise of rains and food.

Curses continue on with wild animals and war, a lack of peace undoing the promise of peace.

And the final curse would have been the worst news ever: full devastation and the removal of God's presence.

This is the opposite of the blessing and covenant of Abraham.

The people would be scattered, they would be rummaged through.

Even the symbols of God's presence would have been removed, like the tabernacle, the incense altars, the sanctuaries.

They were they would be no longer.

This is a very covenantal structure in this day, a very typical covenantal structure, which is here's the promise.

If you follow the promise, it's gonna go good.

If you don't follow the promise, it's not gonna go so well.

And with all of God's words of warnings, they always end on promise.

They never end on judgment.

Pick up in verse 40 with me.

Writes this but if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers and their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies.

If then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

And this remembrance isn't as if God forgot it.

This remembrance is it's it's coming back.

So, point number four with this in mind is this lavish grace is always available to those who seek it.

Lavish grace is always available to those who seek it.

And as is the story of the Bible, mercy triumphs.

No matter how far Israel might wander, which turns out to be pretty far, God will never forsake his covenant.

God's final word is always a word of promise, always a word of grace and hope.

The word of discipline is real, though.

The consequences are real for Israel for their sin.

But no one can outs in the grace of God.

His hand is way too long.

These words of judgment and sin, they can feel very Old Testament, if we're honest.

But we need to remember that Jesus in the New Testament spoke with intensity as well, even in his own churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

These churches that he loved deeply.

He spoke with pretty real words of warning to them, and in all of it is because he loves them.

Chapter 26 here feels like a great way for the book of Leviticus to end, doesn't it?

It wraps up the covenant, a word of forgiveness to broken people, a word of God's extravagant and lavish grace to sinners, even if they fail.

But strangely, it doesn't end here.

It ends with one more chapter, which on the surface feels very out of place.

Leviticus 27, the next chapter, gives us a return back to the beginning of the book, a full circle back.

In the beginning of Leviticus, we see these three voluntary offerings, not required but voluntary, that the people of God could do.

The burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the peace offerings.

And then here at the end, we see a return to these voluntary offerings.

Because chapter 27 is about God's people expressing their love and devotion back to them, back to Him, freely and fully, beyond the call of duty, because lovers delight in giving gifts.

Because lavish love and grace lead to lavish response.

That's what chapter 27 is all about.

This chapter gives very detailed instructions on hey, if you decide out of your own overflow of love for God that you want to dedicate property, uh, land, uh, a child or a spouse to dedication to God's ministry, here's the right way to do it.

Here's the most helpful way to do it.

Leviticus 27 is about a superabundant response to a superabundant grace.

Well, that's the story of Leviticus 27.

Chapter 26 leaves Israel with a choice.

Hey, if you obey, if you follow God's word, it's gonna go well.

And if you don't, things aren't gonna go so great.

The bad news, if you know your Bible, is that the Israelites didn't do it.

They did not follow the covenantal conditions set forth in chapter 26.

They fell short again and again into their own misery.

The temple would ultimately be destroyed, they would be attacked by the sword and fall, they would see the presence of God fall away a bit, and they would find themselves stubborn and hopeless.

And the rest of the Old Testament is story after story of what happened to Israel as they didn't fulfill this covenant.

I want to close with a story from the Gospels.

That's one of my favorite stories because it shows that the gospel is a little messier than we'd like to admit.

But it's also a story that shows what happens to someone when they've received lavish grace.

Jesus, he's he's hanging out with this Pharisee and they're at the dinner table together and having a meal, and it turns out this Pharisee is he's pretty proud of himself.

He's a really big fan of his own self-righteousness, not a very big fan of grace and mercy.

And then this woman shows up, and Luke uses a very particular word to describe this woman, one word, a sinner, which is just exactly who Jesus wanted to be with.

And she shows up and she bows at his feet, and the text says that she's weeping.

And this isn't just like a single tear down the cheek when you're watching a sad movie.

This is like on your face, wailing, is the kind of word used here.

Maybe you've been there.

And as she's weeping, she starts pouring out this really expensive ointment onto his feet, and she's kissing his feet.

She's probably just overjoyed that this prophet or son of God, whoever he might be, loves her.

Because nobody else has ever figured out how to yet.

And this Pharisee, his name is Simon, he's pretty smug.

He even just kind of says to himself, kind of whispers to himself Hey, if this man were a prophet, he'd know exactly what kind of woman this is, a sinner, unlike me.

And then Jesus responds in a parable, which is something.

He did a lot.

Let's read Luke 7, 41 through 50 together.

So this is Jesus talking.

A certain moneylender had two debtors, one owed 500 denera days' wage, and the other fifty.

And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.

Now which of them will love him more?

And Simon, this Pharisee, he answered, the one I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.

And Jesus said to him, You have judged rightly.

And then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman?

I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.

But he who is forgiven little loves little.

And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven.

And then those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins?

And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you, go in peace.

To the surprise of the religious leaders sitting at this table with our boy Simon, this woman, the sinner, she's the one who is saved.

She's the one who's told by Jesus of Nazareth to go in peace.

She had received lavish grace from this new man who she just met.

Leviticus closes with a picture of a people enamored with God's grace.

Just like this woman who can't believe that God would forgive and love someone like her.

The last words of Leviticus here's the open door to forgiveness and life, if you would just believe.

Hey, Israel, I know you didn't obey, but my forgiveness is lavish.

And Israel bore the curse for their disobedience.

They did.

They did not follow the covenant, and they bore the curse.

But what the good news of the gospel is is that you and I broke the curse, and yet Jesus took it upon himself.

Jesus took upon separation from his Father so that you and I wouldn't have to.

If you're not a Christian here this morning, I just want you to know that you can never outsend the grace of Jesus.

His covenant is way too strong.

You can never be too far gone.

Your doubts could never be too deep.

To believe in this God who accepts you, I would invite you to do that.

Even right now, as you're in your mess, to just simply place your faith in him.

The gospel shows us that Jesus actually died for the messy people.

Not to put together religious people, but the messy people who know that they are.

I would invite you now to have your sin placed upon him and his righteousness placed upon you, given to you freely.

If you are a Christian this morning, my invitation to you is the same invitation we give week in and week out to collapse even in your mess once again into your Savior, to see him as your treasure, because you are fully covered, fully, freely, and forever forgiven.

And therefore you have a safe home base with this God of lavish grace.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your word.

This tricky book, Leviticus, Lord, has shown us that you are a God of lavish grace.

As we've seen that the center of the book of Leviticus is a moment of cosmic forgiveness of the day of atonement, would we, as we see the center of our stories, as Jesus atoning for us, fall even more into this lavish grace in his name.

Lord, as we come to you this morning, we are each a mess in our own ways.

And Lord, I pray that we would find an empathetic, a compassionate, and a welcoming Savior even this morning.

Pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.