Wisdom International Devotionals

by Seth Davey

  A Less-Than-Perfect Conception Leviticus 12:1-2 a  & 4 b The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. … She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.”   So high is the standard in this divine commonwealth for ceremonial cleanliness that a woman who has just sacrificed nine months of health, comfort, and mobility to carry a child to term, and who then endures the anguish of a multiple-day labor to deliver that precious child from her womb to the world, is not permitted to enter the tent of meeting by virtue of the very blood and bodily excise that marks her heroism.    Dwell on this for a while today, friend. What a woman undergoes through all the stages of childbirth is an act of uncompromising obedience. God earlier commissioned Eve with these words:  “Be fruitful and multiply,...

  Altars and Alterations Leviticus 11:46-47 This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.   A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching a humanities class to ninth and tenth graders and formed a strong bond with a student named John. John was a strong-minded, big-hearted guy whose family had recently begun acclimating Old Testament kosher laws back into their spiritual discipline. At one point during a class discussion, after I made a comment relating to the covenant of grace eclipsing the covenant of law, John interrupted the lecture with a well-articulated rebuttal: “But God doesn’t change Who He is, Mr. Seth. He wouldn’t tell us one day, ‘Don’t eat that—it’s unholy,’ and then tell us the next day, ‘Okay, eat that—it’s goo...

  The City Center Leviticus 10:10-11 “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.”    Imagine if your house was on fire and you didn’t have a fire station nearby with on-call firefighters ready to help. Imagine if you had a medical emergency but there wasn’t a hospital nearby with dedicated doctors who could take you in. Imagine if you were low on food and there was no grocery store full of bakers and butchers and clerks to stock the shelves. Imagine you saw thieves robbing a bank or burning down convenience stores and there were no police officers you could call for aid. That would all be very bad, but now imagine that you drove for hours down every possible road and you couldn’t find a single church. That would be far worse, wouldn’t it? Because if there isn’t a distinct place in a community where people can go to recei...

  Good Grief Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.   Nadab and Abihu have been riding their father’s priestly coattails all the way from Egypt, but that doesn’t mean that they haven’t embraced their own divine calling in good faith. I’d like to think they love God too. Maybe they really did develop a desire to see God’s glory and follow in their father’s footsteps, but they made the wrong move at the wrong time in the wrong way. I think of that priest during David’s era who reached out to stop the arc of the covenant from toppling over and was immediately struck dead by God. It’s not that he harbored some ill-will in his heart. In fact, his reaching out was probably just instinctual, more an instantaneous reflex of his muscle than a premeditated act of will, but the touch was still unceremonious. So maybe Nadab and Ab...

  Fight the Tide Leviticus 10:1-2 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.   Oh no! Not  this —not now! So much progress has been made. We’ve just witnessed an incredible spiritual revival, culminating in the grand opening of God’s embassy on earth and the coronation of Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. Why must this always happen? Why is this a recurring theme not just in the biblical narrative but in our own lives of faith? I lack the wisdom to understand it. The fact is Nadab and Abihu  do not   have to disregard the LORD here. There’s nothing inevitable about this trend of seeing God’s glory one moment and then betraying Him the very next, yet it still  feels  inevitable somehow. Like a story arch in our human drama that we can’t ...

  Hearts Ablaze Leviticus 9:23-24 And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.   The glorious appearing of God before the people doesn’t manifest to us through the biblical words the same way it manifested to these witnesses’ eyes. Moses could’ve added a string of adjectives before the word ‘fire’ here to bolster the prose. He could’ve described the form and color of the flames, how they were like the appearance of jasper or sapphire or all gemstones together; or how the flames danced across the altar not in raging, wild fashion, like hungry wolves devouring a stag, but in calm, fluid fashion, like the tide gently rolling up and down a Caribbean shoreline; or perhaps how the consuming fire cooled ...

  The Glory in the Commandment Leviticus 9:5-6 And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the LORD. And Moses said, “This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”   There’s a glorious vision that evades us when we pursue our own idea of happiness and tout every compromising step backwards as  progress , rather than pursuing ‘ the thing the LORD commanded us to do.’    I saw a meme the other day being liked by thousands of people where the writer joked that his divorce finally brought him the American dream. I recently watched a sad interview with a female celebrity who transitioned last year, telling the interviewer of her newfound happiness through the saddest expression I’ve ever seen; as if her soul’s been slowly leaking from the wounds she now wears in her mutilated body. I read an even more discomforting testimonial from anot...

  A New Dawn Leviticus 8:1-3 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. And assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”   Moses has just gathered the entire congregation of Israel outside the tent of meeting to witness the ordination of Aaron and Aaron’s sons for priestly service, and I can’t help but imagine how exciting this culminating event be for all the people watching. I bet the onlookers are oohing and aahing with every ceremonial motion. This isn’t like the dead quiet folding-of-the-flag ceremony I witnessed at my grandfather’s military funeral. That ceremony is no doubt draped in unspeakable honor, but it’s the kind where no one dares make a peep. Not here. This ceremony is a rebirth of sorts. And it’s the culmination of  all   the people’s work, not just Moses’ and Aaron’s. These th...

  The Big Six Leviticus 7:37-38 a This is the law of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the ordination offering, and of the peace offering, which the LORD commanded Moses on Mt. Sinai …   It might’ve made no difference to these pilgrims had God issued ten sacrifices to mirror His Ten Commandments or instead just rolled all these rites into one, but the fact that He divided the atoning ministry into six sacrifices is telling. The first and most obvious connection to draw from this is that it sweeps us back to the order of creation, echoing again the recurring theme of Genesis and Exodus that God toiled for six days and so should man.    But in a more symbolic sense, six is the number of earthly life. Six specifies incompletion, while seven represents perfection and divine rest. And just as a typical work week requires six days of toil before rest, so too Atonement’s work isn’t complete with six sacrifices. It need...

  The Hermeneutic of Hindsight Leviticus 7:17-18 a “But what remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten on the third day, he who offers it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be credited to him.”   Reading through law codes like the ones we find throughout Leviticus gives us a perfect opportunity to reflect on the diverse layers of meaning in the biblical text and of what readers in the 21 st  century might derive from the words that readers in this Canaanite wilderness could not have ascertained. We can call this the Hermeneutic of hindsight: the ability to read the Old Testament through the light of the New, comprehending ancient rites and sacraments through the lens of Christ’s Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection, understanding that what God sowed in the hearts of patriarchs and prophets and priests as a mustard seed has been growing and branching out and b...

  Earth-Shattering Faith Leviticus 6:26 b -28 a “In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy, and when any of its blood is splashed on a garment, you shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place. And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken.”   Let’s talk about holiness for a moment today and start by going back to the beginning. In Genesis, God culminated His creation of Adam and Eve by instituting the sacred covenant of marriage: a one-of-a-kind, holy matrimony between one man and one woman. When possible, this unique union provides the sacred context for sexual fulfilment, and, when possible, that sexual union provides the generative power of procreation. But any so-called marriage between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, or a man and seven hundred women (I’m looking at you, Solomon), is not merely unnatural or unusual or unlawful, but unholy. And any sexual conduct ...

  Over-the-Top Confession Leviticus 6:2-5 “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery … if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression … he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt.”   Immediately upon reading Leviticus 6:2-5 my mind jumped forward to that wonderful event in Luke 24 where the tax-collector, Zacchaeus, repents of his usury and says to Christ, “I’ll give half my money to the poor, and if I’ve defrauded anyone, I’ll restore it fourfold!” My mind also goes to Saul of Tarsus, that Pharisee of Pharisees, the choice pupil of Gamaliel, who defrauded followers of Christ out of mistaken zeal until Christ transformed him on the road to Damascus. What a difference a moment with God makes! Because after that, Paul spent the re...

  Top-Top Shelf Leviticus 5:7 a  & 11 a “But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons. … But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering … a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering.”   It’s no small thing that in God’s economy of mercy, an offering for sin is a basic necessity that  everyone   can afford.   What if you went to your local grocery store later today and discovered that eggs and milk were no longer stocked on the shelves and the few items that remained were being sold at triple their regular price? What if you kept walking down the aisles and found that bread and diapers and toilet paper and medicine and fruits and vegetables were just as scarce and just as pricey? To make matters worse, what if you stopped at the gas station on the way home to fill up your tank and discovered that th...

  Pleading the Fifth Leviticus 5:1 “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.”   The fifth chapter of Leviticus and the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution don’t quite harmonize. Consider for a moment the contrast between the simplicity of God’s prescribed ethic of honesty here and our protective rights given us by America’s founding fathers. What is it a police officer says to a witness when taking him in for questing? “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do might be used against you in a court of law.” Effectively, that right is given to the individual as a countermeasure to the corrupt practices that often coincide with court proceedings. The right could be restated this way: “You better not say too much because a well-versed attorney could twist your words in a way that proves detrimental in cou...

  From Immanuel’s Veins Leviticus 4:34 “Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.”   I’ll never forget sitting in a doctor’s office getting ready to have blood drawn, when a bubbly nurse walked in, strung that tourniquet on my forearm, watched my veins bulge, and then excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, you have such beautiful veins! I bet you don’t hear that often!” I certainly didn’t; but we laughed about it, and I remember thanking God in the quiet of my heart for wiring people like her to  enjoy   the necessary and bloody work of health service. That’s a prayer I continue to repeat every time fortune leads me back to a doctor’s office or an Emergency Room.     The fact is, unless blood is being used symbolically as in my favorite hymn ‘There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,’ I refrain from thinking abo...

  Grace is More Leviticus 4:13-14 “If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly … and they realize their guilt, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting.”    If we form a synthesis from Paul’s indictment on unrepentant humanity in Romans 1 with God’s inauguration here in Leviticus 4 regarding the unintentional sinner, we’ll walk away today better equipped to speak the truth in love to the unrepentant sinners in our society. Far too often, I’ve tended to view unbelievers through too cynical a lens, extracting Scriptures like, “our righteousness is as filthy rags” to impugn my relatively moral neighbor, believing him to have some secret and self-serving motive beneath the good intentions. I’ve read Paul’s words in Romans 1 that unbelievers have willfully exchanged true worship for idolatr...

  A Little Clarity Leviticus 3:16 b “All fat is the LORD’s.”   After asking the LORD for insight yesterday, I took the time to read Jewish commentaries on this Scripture in hopes of broadening my understanding of the Hebrew word,  helev , discovering that it literally means ‘the layers of fat covering vital organs in the body.’ With that as a backdrop, I’ve come to the conclusion that this Levitical law itself is a   helev around the heart of God, beyond the reach of finite human wisdom. Leviticus 3:16, similar to John 3:16, is a mystery so intertwined in divine Being, so hidden from human eyes, that the only way to uncover it is to open up the whole infinite Body and pick it apart piece by piece, which no theologian can do. Only Providence knows what Providence knows. Only Omniscience sees the parts as well as the whole. Only the Creator of body and soul can understand why thin layers of hidden fat are meaningful both as sacrifices and as symbols.    But c...

  Buried in the Sinews Leviticus 3:16 b -17 “All fat is the LORD’s. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”    The spiritual symbolism clearly deepens with God’s message here in Leviticus 3:16 that “all fat is mine,” yet so do the mysteries of its meaning. For starters, fat is not only beneficial to our nutrition but often delicious in proper proportion. That’s why the father in the parable of the prodigal son brings the fattened calf to the celebratory feast. That’s also why survivalist folk who live off the natural resources hunt bears and boars and even beavers, because the fat of these animals is essential for retaining metabolic strength. But beyond the particular dietary nuances of this law, do you notice how it essentially mirrors God’s prohibition to Adam and Even in Eden? Both the fat of these animals and the forbidden fruit tree in Eden are ‘good for food’ and ‘pleasing to the e...

  Cometh the Tide Leviticus 2:13 “You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”   When Christ referred to His disciples as ‘the salt of the earth,’ perhaps He was alluding to the way we as Christians preserve the world from decay, just as salt preserves meat, or the way we flavor the world with goodness, truth, and beauty, just as salt flavors bland food, or the way we purify the wicked world, just as salt purifies water. The analogy seems like a little well in the midst of the wilderness at first glance, but on closer inspection, it becomes an expansive ocean with so many applications to explore.   Nevertheless, I can’t help but marvel at the way salt represents God’s incarnational, ever-present labor of love in His covenant with us. Think of the fact that the joy of human toil is inextricably married to the pain of it. As th...

  Better than BBQ Leviticus 1:17 b “And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.”   Think of how many times you’ve been strolling down your neighborhood street or playing at the local park and you suddenly caught a whiff of someone’s barbeque on the breeze. Envy is born in an instant, isn’t it?! And think of how much your stress levels immediately fall the moment you walk into a bakery and smell the sweet aroma of bread and spices baking in the oven. The mere thought is making my mouth water even now! But  “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD,”  the Spirit reminds me, and an epiphany is currently nourishing me more than food. It’s this: that Leviticus 1:17 is another paradox in the life of faith. It’s simultaneously a physical fast  and   a spiritual feast.    To put it simply, this food...

  Picture Perfect Leviticus 1:1-2 & 3 b The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When anyone of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock … a male without blemish.”   The Book of Leviticus opens with a poignant prefiguring of Jesus Christ, the atoning, sacrificial Lamb of God in whom there is no defect or blemish or vice, reminding us at the very outset that this testament of ceremonial shadows can only be understood through the Form from which these shadows emanate. May He be both our goal and our guide through this continued pilgrimage—the substance and outline of all the modus operandi of tabernacle symbology—the incarnate Word that meets us through the grammar and syntax of our feeble tongue. For  “In His light we see light,” wrote the prophet, and without our eyes fixed ever on Him, Leviticus will seem more like a vi...