Lev 11, 12, 13 - Examine Me!
In the old Jewish encampments in the desert on the way to their permanent home, there must have been a lot of 'examining' going on. Everything had to be examined to determine whether it was unclean. Animals were examined, skin was examined. What you ate had to be clean, your skin had to be clean etc. etc. Why was being 'clean' so important? If someone was unclean, or touched something unclean, or ate something unclean, they would in turn become unclean for a certain period of time. Sometime they would remain unclean if the problem (ie skin disease) never went away. Why was becoming unclean so important? Because then, as unclean they were not able to enter the temple, go before the priest, and offer their offerings to the priest so that the priest in turn could offer their offerings to God, so that they could finally be clean 'inside' their soul. Complicated....but so interesting. In the bible it mentions that if we 'regard iniquity in our hearts....God cannot hear us'. In other words, if we are unclean, we can't go before the priest, have him offer our offerings to God and be clean. So we have to voluntarily go before our high priest, Jesus, and be willing to be examined. Sometimes I would rather not go because i suspect that I might have become unclean...but in my human state...I know that there needs to be a lot of examining going on so that my access to His throne of Grace is not hampered by my unwillingness to be examined and cleaned through His Holy Spirit's prodding and by Jesus' blood. So, I have to get in line and say, 'Examine Me Please.'
Created over 2 years ago
