Leviticus 17-20 "This is God's house"

Leviticus 18:1-5

Matthew 5:38-42

This is God’s house.

When I enter someone else’s’ house, I hope I follow their house rules, after all their house, their rules…

And so I know when I enter some houses, I take my shoes off at the door- “No shoes in the house”- that is a rule I follow.

May be, you have that rule…. “no shoes in the house….”

But what would you do, if I ignored your rules, what would you do, if I insisted on bringing my dirty, grubby shoes through your house and ruining your clean carpet?

Perhaps there would be different types of responses….

Perhaps some would push me out the door and tell me I am not welcome, perhaps others would insist that I take my shoes off, perhaps others, would just say….. “oh, that’s OK, I will let you off just this once….. I can always clean the carpet after”

But what if, I then came into your living room with my dirty shoes on, and put my feet up on your couch? What would you do then?

Because that is another rule in your house- No shoes on the couch.

What if I then started eating a packet of chips and started spilling them all over the couch and all over the floor?.....Another rule broken….   “no eating in the living room”

I hope I wouldn’t be that much of an idiot, I hope I would respect your rules for your house, even if we may not have the same rules in the Smith house.

Now, as we scan over chapters 17-20 of Leviticus, today, we are going to look at the rules that God set up in his house, and what we must keep at the forefront of our minds today, is that as we look at some of these rules that God lays down, we must remember that this is God’s rules for God’s House.

And so as much as you would have respect for keeping the rules at Mrs Jones house, this house is much more important than Mrs Jones house or anyone’s house because this is God’s house, and in God’s house there is life and life to the full.

In God’s house is the best place to be, in fact in God’s house, is the only place to be.

And if you are in God’s house, following God’s rules, you are more than just a visitor passing through, you are much more than that: you are a member of God’s family. If you are in God’s house, this is how God expects you to live, because you are part of God’s eternal family.

At the heart of God’s rules and at the heart of these chapters from Leviticus is the rule found right there in Leviticus 19:2.

It is the rule that covers all other rules.

Look at Leviticus 19:2 with me:

“You shall be Holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy”

To be Holy is to be like God in our character, and our actions….

Being Holy is being like nothing else in this world, because only God is Holy-only God is God. Ther is no-one or nothing else like Him.

And so for God’s people, the Israelites, to be Holy, meant, they were not to reflect the ways of the other nations around them, such as Egypt and Caanan, who followed the ways of their so-called gods.

Instead the Israelite nation, were to reflect God’s ways, since this is what it means to be Holy, to live in a way that reflects who their God is.

The first thing that God didn’t accept in his house back in the days of Moses amongst his people- the Israelites, and still doesn’t accept today amongst his people- the church, was and is, worship to other gods.

This after all was the very first of the ten commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me”

Friends, Christianity is not an all embracing of all gods religion, it is not a syncretistic system, where we take a bit of this god and bit of that god- No, there is one God, one God in three persons, father, spirit, son.

Jesus is not one of many gods, Jesus is the God- one God, father, son-spirit.

God does not accept our syncretistic worship.

God doesn’t accept that we worship him along with all other so-called gods.

Look at Leviticus 17:7 with me:

“They shall no more sacrifice to goat demons, after whom they whore”

Amazing to think, that after all that God had done for his people, moving heaven and earth to bring them out of Egypt to worship Him freely in the desert, God’s people (or at least some of them), where still sacrificing animals in God’s camp, near His tabernacle, not to God, but to another so-called, God- the goat demon. 

And so God set a rule, that if anyone was doing this, they were to be cut off from among the people. God was not going to allow his people to worship other gods in his house- if they did, they were to be cut off, thrown out the house.

Why?

Lots of reasons, including that God is a jealous God and only wants us to worship Him and Him alone, but also God’s house, was God’s house- it was like no other, it was different from all the pagan nations around them.

This is why God also insisted that any foreigner who made a sacrifice to their god in the Israelite camp, would also be thrown out of his house. This was God’s house, his rules and everyone was to follow them.

God made this rule, not to punish his people, not because God is some sort of egomaniac, but God made this rule, to protect his people and give them life, and life to the full. Only true joy can be found in worshipping the one and true living God.

We know that these images that people made of gods, back in the days of Moses, were not gods and could not help his people, we know that goats and cows were not gods, and that these animals could not help his people. We know that these false gods demanded things of his people that were just wicked, like the sacrifice of their own children. We know that these carved images could not speak of hear. Any other so-called god, was just a noose around god’s people’s necks.

And for God to make a rule in his house, that they worship Him and Him alone, was a rule that gave his people life, a rule that took the burden from their shoulders of trying to please all these so-called gods.

Of course, we may not worship a golden calf today, or a goat, but we do worship other things that we continue to try and appease, like our careers, money, family. We today, exhaust ourselves in the worship of these things, thinking that they will bring us eternal satisfaction……when in reality….they don’t.

Friends, if you are part of God’s family….relax….rest….worship God alone…..He is the one true and living God.

God must despair when he witnesses these “interfaith” gatherings, or prayer meetings, God will not put up with people assembling  before him, bowing before Him, but also praying to the god of the Muslims, or the god of Mary, or the god of Buddha- God doesn’t share his glory, God is a jealous God, to him alone is the Glory, to Him alone do we bring our sacrifice of praise.

God must despair when he sees our sacrifice of praise to him on a Sunday, but then we bring our sacrifice of praise to our career, or money or whatever for the rest of the week.

No, if we are in God’s house, a member of God’s family, we worship Him, and Him alone.

In God’s house in the days of Moses, his house was clearly distinct from other houses, by what his people ate. People ate every day, and so this distinction was a daily one, not just a Sunday morning one.

In God’s house, God’s were not to eat the blood of the animal, like they did in other pagan houses. No, the blood represented life and so, blood was to be saved to make sacrifices for sins, it wasn’t to be eaten with the animal, as other nations did.

This was God’s house- God’s rules.

Of course, since Jesus came, these food laws no longer apply to God’s people, since God declared all food clean, all food is now permissible to eat. This rule applied to the nation of Israel at that time. God’s people are now a holy nation which is spread across the world, not just one nation in part of the world.

God’s house in the days of Moses was also different from the pagan nations around them by the sexual ethics they were to follow.

In Leviticus chapter 18, we read that God prohibited, incestual sexual relations, sexual relations during a woman’s menstrual cycle, sexual relations with your neighbours wife, homosexual relations, and sexual relations with animals.

By the way in your bibles it doesn’t say “sexual relations” but it says “uncover the nakedness”- this is the same thing. The writer was probably so appalled at the phrase “sexual relations” that they used “uncover the nakedness” as a euphemism.

All these prohibitions about sexual relations applied in God’s house but they were allowed and even celebrated in other pagan houses.

Today friends, we are still different from the world around us by the biblical sexual ethics we follow.

The world thinks it strange that we preach sex within a marriage between a man and a woman.

And yet God set this rule in his house, not to be a party pooper, but to protect us and help us thrive in his ordained family unit.

Even modern research concedes that a healthy family, is one with a mum and dad, who are together for life. Children are safe and happy in a family of mum and dad together.

For us to live by the sexual ethic of sex within marriage between a man and a woman would protect against sexual transmitted diseases, protect against unwanted pregnancies, protect against all sorts of dangers.

Friends, God sets the rules in his house, not only for our protection, but also for our flourishing.

Even the rule that God set in for his people in the days of Moses of “an eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth”, (Leviticus 24:20) was God’s way of protecting his people.

In those days amongst other nations, it was often a case of an eye for a life, or a life for a family. In other words in pagan nations, it was common that revenge would be meted out completely, and so if someone killed member of another clan, the brother of the murdered would kill the whole family, or the whole clan as retribution.

And so, even though, this eye for an eye seems harsh to us now, it was God’s way of protecting his people, it was God’s way of revenge not being over-exaggerated.

Of course when Jesus came to this earth, he superseded this rule of an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth- He said this….  “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other”

Jesus taught us not to retaliate, because now we leave vengeance with the Lord. God no longer brings his vengeance through the nation of Israel, but He will bring it on the day of Judgement.

Now God’s house is not just a list of do nots…..but it is also a list of “do’s”

And at the heart of God “to do’s” is found right there in Leviticus 19:18b

You shall love your neighbour as yourself

Jesus quoted this verse a lot in the gospel, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself”- but what does that actually mean?

Well Leviticus actually fleshes out what that love for our neighbour looks like.

In the days of Moses this meant that the Israelites didn’t harvest right up to their boundary line, trying to maximise every last grain for their benefit, but it meant leaving the margins of their fields for the poor to pick the crop.

Today, it means that we don’t try and squeeze every last dollar for ourselves, but leave room in our budget to give to others who may be in need.

In the days of Moses, loving your neighbour, looked like dealing fairly with people whom you sold grain to. It meant being honest with the scales you used. It meant selling a pound of wheat for the given amount, rather than half a pound of wheat for a greater amount.

For us today, it means being honest with our taxes. It means not ripping people off by selling them lemons when they are thinking they are buying diamonds.

In the days of Moses, loving your neighbour was shown by paying your worker when he had finished the shift and not waiting till the morning. For us today, it means paying a worker what was promised them.

Showing love in the days of Moses, meant that you told the truth in court, and not being swayed by a feeling of compassion for the poor, or being swayed by the money of the rich, but showing love, was to tell the truth- so justice was served.

Now at this point, you may be thinking that Christianity is all about a list of do’s and don’ts’s….and in a sense……. it is.

I know, some of you think I have fallen into some legalistic, boring, monotone religion which is all about do’s and don’ts’s

But in our efforts to shy away from the commands God has given us, we miss the life giving, joy fulfilling, satisfying way of life that God has given us.

Look at Leviticus 18:5 with me:

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules, if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord

Now, the first thing we must remember is that God set these rules after he had already saved his people from the slavery of the Egyptians. God had already shown them grace, God had already brought them to the mountain to worship Him, as his people together.

Friends, through Jesus and his death and resurrection, God has already saved us from our sins, God has already brought us into his family, and so we don’t follow his rules, in order to be saved, no, we follow God’s rules because we are already saved.

In the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the bible), when it talks about keeping God’s rules and living by them, it refers to enjoying life under God’s pleasure.

Friends, when we live in God’s house according to his rules, we have life and life to the full.- There is no other house I would rather be in.

Let us pray