People often say that life is a journey, a twisting, turning labyrinth of experiences, emotions and encounters. That is true for us individually, but also collectively as a race. The human race is constantly growing, exploring and travelling on a journey of discovery and adventure. We see it in the arts, in science, in technology and in culture, but where will that journey end up? What is it that we are aiming for in life and will we even get there? If not what is the point in trying? In the book of Leviticus, we get a glimpse of what this journey might be about, both personally and collectively. This is a book which Christians are usually too scared to talk about because it contains a lot of rules and regulations. Some of these rules make a lot of sense, some seem a little outdated and some seem to make life really boring. There are people who say that some of these rules are no longer relevant because of Jesus, and there are others who argue if we’re going to throw some of them out we as well forget all of them. However, I believe, that if we understand the true meaning of this book, Leviticus is entirely relevant to today. I actually believe that it offers us an answer to where the journey of our lives should take us, a direction that we can go that will lead us to the most fulfilled and healthy life. The first two verses of chapter nineteen tell us what that is:
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“God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them: Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy…””
God is telling us to be holy. The word we translate as holy is the Hebrew word “qadosh” which means sacred, set apart or different. God is calling us towards Himself, setting our destination to becoming like Him and that is to be set apart, to be different, to be holy. Eugene Peterson describes what holy means like this:
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““Holy” is the word that sets God apart and above our attempts to enlist him in our wish–fulfillment fantasies or our utopian schemes for making our mark in the world. Holy means that God is alive on God’s terms, alive in a way that exceeds our experience and imagination. Holy refers to life burning with an intense purity that transforms everything it touches into itself.”
If our destination is to be like God and the direction we have to go is holiness, then the rest of Leviticus is sort of like an ancient version of Citymapper, it’s the directions. Through the pages of this book, we are told what it was that Israel had to do to be holy. It covers every aspect of life, from what you can wear to who you can sleep with, from who to worship to how to cut your hair. Perhaps it’s more like Heat Magazine than Citymapper; but the point is, it’s saying that this is about your whole life, not just the seemingly “religious” parts.
God is giving the people of Israel clear directions on what they need to do to live a holy life, in everything he tells them to do, he is moving them forwards in that area. It’s important to remember this because sometimes we can read it and think that what is saying isn’t quite right. Some of the stuff that the Bible tells us to do is outdated, because it was written into a specific context and to specific group of people. However that does not mean what is saying is irrelevant to us today. I think it is helpful to think of it in terms of signposts, and not fixed rules. The signposts tell us to move towards something, but are never are the thing in themselves. The place we are coming from, our context, is different to the people of Israel. While the place we are headed is the same, the signposts along the way may be different. God doesn’t so much care about whether or not we are following a list of rules, so much as the direction that we are going in. Holiness isn’t a matter of our actions, but more of our intentions.
Jesus explained it like this in the Sermon on the Mount:
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““You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.””
Jesus is saying that being holy is not about merely doing the right things, it’s about our intentions and direction in life. Often Christians make things very black-and-white. We take the rules, and the signposts God has given us and we use them to make people conform to a specific model of life. In reality, however, everything is so much more grey. When we realise destination is to be like God, we realise that it’s not about legalism, it’s not about blindly following rules, it’s about aligning the compass of your life so that is pointed towards God. It’s about being holy.
If we got this I really think it could change the world. It would certainly change my life, and probably your life and it would impact the people around us. What if we decided to walk towards God in everything we do? What if, in every area of our lives, we decided to pursue the goal of being holy in that? How could that impact your life? How could that impact the way you treat the world, your family or your finances? How could that impact your diet, what you put on social media or your sex life? How could that change your place of work, your neighbourhood or your church? Paul says it really well in Romans 12:
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“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
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