why all these Old Testament readings??

November 1, 2007: Psalm 50; Leviticus 23


"Mark, why are you asking us to read through this material???"

No one has said it outright, you all are too gracious. But I think I've detected the sentiment underneath some comments in the last couple of weeks.

First, I'm thankful to God that many of us are reading the same Scriptures day by day. This alone is a gift and help to our corporate life in Christ.

Second, though we have a "Daily Office" with a two-year cycle of appointed readings that would have us all reading the same Scriptures, I believed we were to make our way through our foundational story in the first five books of the Bible this Fall (which the Daily Office would not have provided). This is our story, if indeed we are children of Abraham. While we Gentiles are not commanded to keep all the ritualistic, dietary, and civil laws (all but the moral laws), they are still instructive for us. Five of the seven feasts (including Sabbath) described in Leviticus 23 are mentioned in the New Testament: Sabbath, Passover, the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost or Shabuoth), the Day of Atonement (or Yom Kipur), the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles or Sukkoth). In this case, to understand Jesus and the Apostolic teaching we must understand the feasts.

Third, it is for me one small way that I try to bless Abraham, or the Jewish people. God said in Genesis 12, "those who bless you I will bless..." I still think that's God's design and desire. By seeking to understand and respect their Scriptures and feasts and even their traditions, I am seeking to bless and honor Abraham and his people.

Perhaps to tie it together with Psalm 50 (what a great psalm!)
(note: this is God speaking through the psalmist):

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High...
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me...
(vs.14,23)

God was, and still is, seeking our hearts. All these laws and sacrifices and feasts were to remind, and form, and protect his people that he had redeemed by his grace from bondage. They were never, ever to move them away from gratitude and love to law-keeping or just heartless, loveless ritualism.

He desires thanksgiving, gratefulness, as the motivation of all we do.