David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 19-21, Psalm 72.

Numbers 20:2, 6-12

Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. … ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, ⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

No, Moses! Don’t do it! Don’t strike the rock. I know you are tired and frustrated. I know the people you have been leading day after day wear you down. They grumble against God, criticize you, and make your life miserable. I know you have carefully written down the decrees of the LORD. You have recorded every statute and rule. You have overseen the building of the Tabernacle according to the proper specifications. You have done everything you were supposed to do.

Now the people are thirsty. They need water. God has told you to speak to the rock. Speak — not strike — Moses. Don’t hit the rock!

But Moses does strike the rock, and he will suffer the consequences. He will not enter the Promised Land. He has heard the reports — including those of Joshua and Caleb. The land is flowing with milk and honey. Its inhabitants are large and foreboding, but Israel will prevail. They will conquer the land. They will enter it. But Moses will not experience it.

I wonder if it broke Moses’ heart. I wonder how disappointed he was. I wonder how deeply this saddened him.

There may be a hint in the New Testament as to why striking the rock was so consequential. After all, it seems like such a small thing — two strikes against a rock — yet it disqualifies Moses from entering the land.

I do not want to push the point too far, but Paul writes that Israel “all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). In the wilderness the rock was struck so that water might flow and the people might live. In the fullness of time Christ himself would be struck – pierced on the cross – for our sins. He is the living water that flows for the salvation of the world.

What are the consequences of sin? Humanly speaking, there are always consequences. Sin leaves its mark in this life. But the full weight of sin’s consequences was laid on Jesus. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Through his death we are forgiven and redeemed. And by his grace we will enter the Promised Land — the life of the world to come.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 16-18, Psalm 71.

Numbers 16:1-11

Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. ² And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. ³ They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” ⁴ When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, ⁵ and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him. ⁶ Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; ⁷ put fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” ⁸ And Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: ⁹ is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, ¹⁰ and that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? ¹¹ Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him?”

Does this story ever get old? Is it ever resolved. The people – Korah, along with Dathan, Abiram, and 250 leaders of Israel in this case – challenge the authority of Moses and Aaron. They argue that the entire congregation is holy and that Moses and Aaron have exalted themselves above the people. Moses responds by placing the matter before the Lord. God judges the rebellion decisively: the earth opens and swallows Dathan and Abiram with their households, and fire consumes the 250 men offering unauthorized incense.

“Korah’s rebellion reminds us how serious it is to resist the order God himself establishes among his people. Yet the story of Israel in the wilderness is far from over. Sadly, this will not be the last rebellion, nor the last time the Lord must discipline his wandering children – though again and again he will also show mercy.”

Notice this! Korah and his crew puff themselves up, but Moses falls down before the Lord. Three times in Numbers 16 (v. 4, 22, & 45) Moses falls down. It makes it clear how true it is that “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

Even Jesus himself did not simply disregard the authority structures God had allowed to exist. When he was brought before the high priest Caiaphas, he remained silent under accusation. But when the high priest placed him under oath – “I adjure you by the living God” – Jesus answered (Matthew 26:63–64). Even in the midst of injustice, he acknowledged the seriousness of the office.

More than that, Jesus completely humbled himself – even to the point of death on the cross. And now he sits exalted at the right hand of God on high. So we must learn not only from the ignominious end of prideful Korah and his clan, but more so from Jesus to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God for in due time he will lift us up.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 13-15, Psalm 70.

Numbers 14:11-19

And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹² I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴ and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷ And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹ Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

In the midst of Israel’s wanderings toward the Promised Land, an important lesson on prayer emerges. The spies are sent to scout out the land and return with two dramatically different reports. The majority report can be summarized simply: “Don’t go there! The people there will squash us like ants! We’ll be killed the first step we take into the land.” Joshua and Caleb, however, bring a report springing from courageous faith: “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30).

Then (predictably) comes the grumbling of the people. You’ve brought us out here to die. We don’t need to go into this dangerous place. We’re going to die in the desert.

Then comes God’s anger at their faithlessness.

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’”

Moses has been formed by the challenges and victories he has experienced, and he is stronger for it. He has spoken with God on Mount Sinai. He has endured the criticisms and disappointments. He has seen the Red Sea parted and the manna from heaven.

Bolstered by these experiences, Moses stands in the gap before the Lord on behalf of the people, serving as a priest for them – a glimpse of the greater mediator who would one day stand in the gap for all.

In doing so, he makes his boldest appeal:

“Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised.”

See what Moses is doing? He is calling God on his promise. He is taking God at his word.

Centuries later a man by the name of Martin Luther prayed for his friend and colleague Philip Melanchthon. According to accounts preserved by friends and later biographers, Luther found Melanchthon nearly unconscious. Luther took hold of him and began to pray very forcefully and directly to God.

In his own way, Luther was doing what Moses had done.

Luther later described what he did something like this (paraphrased from various early reports):

“I prayed for Philip with great urgency, because the need was extreme. I pleaded God’s promises and reminded him that he had commanded us to pray. I besieged God with his own promises. I threw the sack at the door.”

It was Luther’s vivid way of saying that he laid the whole matter before God and pressed God’s promises in prayer.

There are times when you can do the same. You can throw the sack at the door of God’s grace and pray the strongest prayers of all – prayers grounded in God’s Word and promises.

Prayer is not powerful because of the one who prays. It is powerful because of the God who hears – the God who has given his promises and invites us to hold him to them in prayer.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 10-12, Psalm 69.

Numbers 12:1-8

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. ² And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. ³ Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. ⁴ And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. ⁵ And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. ⁶ And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. ⁷ Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. ⁸ With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

I wish I could say I cannot identify with Moses as he is criticized by Miriam and Aaron. But I do know what it is to be criticized. Whether justly or not, criticism stings. It can distract from the important work to which we are called. It can make a leader timid and hesitant. I remember a time decades ago when criticism left me nearly in tears, wondering what I could do to please the people of the congregation I was serving.

But criticism does more than unsettle a leader. When people undermine a legitimate leader — one whom God has called and placed in a position of service — God’s work can suffer. God’s people become discouraged, and the mission can stall.

In forty-five years of ministry, there have been only a few times when I have faced criticism. Those moments are memorable, but they do not define me. Nor does criticism prove very much, except that it can strengthen God’s servant and deepen his resolve to follow God’s ways.

In Moses’ case, God spoke to him face to face — not through dreams or visions, but directly. Their relationship was unique. I have never experienced that kind of unmistakable clarity, but I have known the conviction of God’s call and purpose. Like many who serve the Lord, I have had to stay the course in the face of challenge and criticism.

Such is often the life of those who lead God’s people. Too often the people themselves are tempted to complain and long to return to Egypt — remembering the cucumbers, leeks, onions, and meat they once had. Never mind that they were slaves. Never mind the tears they shed in their suffering.

We can fall prey to the same temptation. Let’s go back to the old ways. Let’s do things the way we used to. But God calls his people forward. His purpose is that we proclaim his glory and follow the leadership of those who seek to speak his word and carry out his mission.

These days I find myself more often in the place of following than leading. And I gladly honor my pastor and the leaders God has placed around me. I will follow as they lead us in God’s mission to make disciples and proclaim his grace.

Will you join me in following as we follow the One who leads us all?

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 7-9, Psalm 68.

Numbers 7:89-8:4

And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.

8 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.” ³ And Aaron did so: he set up its lamps in front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. ⁴ And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

We may rightly think of God’s holiness as his majestic purity, righteousness, and glory. Behind the word holy, and all of those attributes is the idea that God is different. Indeed, God is really different.

I think about that as I consider the character of God as revealed in this section of Numbers in contrast to the news I’ve been watching recently – especially the coverage of the war in the Middle East. Destruction, death, violence, chaos, blame, recrimination, and terror run rampant. These are the products of man’s whims and ways. We dream up ways to harm each other.

Man rebels against God. We align ourselves with the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. We go our own way, determine for ourselves what is good and evil. The results? Families are fractured. Relationships are ruptured. Peace is destroyed. Joy is stolen. Hope is killed.

But God is really different. He is the author of peace, joy, grace, love, and blessing. Not only so, but he offers man the opportunity to embrace those blessings by means here of the Tabernacle with its mercy seat, lampstands, and ark of the covenant.

The mercy seat was the gold cover of the Ark of the Covenant where the presence of the LORD was revealed between the cherubim. It is the place from which God speaks to Moses and guides Israel during their journey in the wilderness (Numbers 7:89). It represents both God’s holiness and his mercy — the place where atonement is made and where God meets with his people.

God does not want man to remain in a state of unholy separation from himself. He provides a manner by which he can speak to his people from the place of his mercy. I love the image of the wings of the cherubim spread over this very special place. After the fall, cherubim guard the entrance to Eden (Genesis 3:24). Their wings covering the mercy seat symbolize the holiness of God being guarded, emphasizing that sinful people cannot casually approach God’s presence.

We no longer hear from God by means of the Tabernacle’s mercy seat. We have an even better place of his voice. The mercy seat was the place where the atoning blood was sprinkled and where God met his people in mercy — a reality that ultimately points us to Christ. He spoke words of mercy, grace, and forgiveness from between two thieves, and opened the way for all who look to him to hear a voice of kindness and welcome. Jesus promises in Jon 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Leviticus 25-27, Psalm 65.

Leviticus 26:1-6

“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ² You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³ “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴ then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. ⁶ I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

There are those who take passages like this and leverage them to prop up a theology of glory — the so-called prosperity gospel. In that view the Christian life becomes a quid-pro-quo exchange with God: I do good and he blesses me. I give and he gives back. After all, isn’t that what God promises? So they build large and impressive edifices, wear Rolex watches, drive luxury cars, and live in expansive mansions. “God has blessed me because I have been faithful,” they say.

But the fact remains that there is no quid-pro-quo with God. He is God. When he makes promises such as these, he is not offering a simple exchange of good behavior for blessing.

Rather, God is describing something that can often be seen at the level of a whole community. These words are spoken to the nation, not as guarantees of personal prosperity for any one individual. When a community lives with integrity, mutual respect, and justice, life tends to go better within that community. That is the kind of blessing God is describing.

Even so, troubles can come — even to communities marked by integrity and faith. The world promotes values that undermine the ways of God, and the devil does everything he can to destroy lives and fracture communities.

On September 15, 1999, a gunman entered the sanctuary of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, opened fire, killing seven people and wounding seven others. It was a terrible tragedy and a profound loss. Faithful people experienced the devastating work of evil in the world.

I recall the church’s pastor, Rev. Al Meredith – in the face of that tragedy – quoting the words of Habakkuk:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation”

I was reminded of this when I read this Leviticus passage. God has promised good to us and we can be absolutely confident of his promises. And as we see his goodness and faithfulness, we can and should give thanks and praise to him. But even when the fields yield no food, we can praise him. For he is good, and he is the One who endured the greatest loss for us. Jesus bore our sin, our sorrow, and even death itself upon the cross. And on the third day God raised him from the dead, assuring us that evil does not have the final word.

So we rejoice not because life is always easy or prosperous, but because the God of our salvation is faithful. Whether the barns are full or empty, whether our days are peaceful or troubled, the Lord remains our God. And that is reason enough to rejoice.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Leviticus 22-24, Psalm 64.

Leviticus 22:17-23; 23:33-36

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, ¹⁹ if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰ You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. ²¹ And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²² Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar. ²³ You may present a bull or a lamb that has a part too long or too short for a freewill offering, but for a vow offering it cannot be accepted. 

^23:33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. ³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. ³⁶ For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.

It must have made quite an impression on him. He mentioned it years after I had said it. “The Lord doesn’t need your money.” That is not only something that made an impression on him, it is important that we understand that. God doesn’t need our money, nor did he need the bulls, goats, birds, or grain of the various offerings he commanded through Moses. Here is God’s own witness to that fact.

• “I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.” – Psalm 50:9–12
• “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” – Psalm 24:1
• “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” – 1 Chronicles 29:14
• “Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool… All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.” – Isaiah 66:1–2

But that’s only half of the truth – maybe only a third of it. For while God doesn’t need our money, we need to give. Giving forces us to let go of control (if we truly give). It guards us against greed. It allows for the love of God to flow from us to others. Rather than becoming stagnant in greed, giving opens the channels of God’s blessing, refreshing others — and in that very act we ourselves are refreshed (cf Proverbs 11:25). God doesn’t need our money, but our neighbor does. Giving is a tangible expression of the love we have received from God.

Notice one more thing: Not just any gift will do. Jesus makes it clear that a restored broken relationship between a brother or sister in Christ is more important than giving a gift. Ananias and Sapphira offered an offensive gift and paid the ultimate price for doing so. Aaron’s sons were struck down when they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord.

God doesn’t need your money. But we should realize that giving is a good and proper thing to do. It is also a privilege to give, and an act of worship as well. We give properly as we remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Leviticus 19-21, Psalm 63.

Leviticus 19:1-4

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19–21 reads like a catalog of everyday faithfulness: honor your parents, care for the poor, deal honestly with others, and respect the elderly. Even the priests were held to careful standards because they served near the presence of God. Through it all runs one clear theme — God’s people are called to reflect His holiness in every part of life.

I noticed reading these chapters that in the context of all these Old Testament requirements and laws, the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” That really struck me because when Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law, he answered with the expected, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and might.” He’s quoting the “John 3:16 of the Old Testament” (I call it that because it was so well known by the Jews of his day) we hear the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He reaches into these chapters of Leviticus, picking his way through the maze of ritual, and sexual prohibitions and pulls out this gem. “And the second one is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” He says on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. They summarize the whole law of God.

Keep that in mind as you consider the opening verses of Leviticus 19: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

God commands his people to be different. And Jesus realizes that the key to being different is not mere outward obedience or religious observance. The key to God-pleasing difference is love: love for God, and love for neighbor.

As God’s people we are not constantly to test the limits or bristle against his commands. We are not to see how far we can go, or give in to the ways of the world. We are not to let the world set our moral compass with regard to sexual morality, integrity, or how we treat our neighbor. We are to love God first and most, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

The ways of the world are a slippery slope for God’s people. From the beginning the temptation has been the same: to decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil. But the Lord alone is God. He alone determines what is good, and he alone is worthy of our love above all.

He alone is worthy of all this because he is a loving God — the author of love — who loved us so much that he sent his Son into the world so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Leviticus 16-18, Psalm 62.

Leviticus 16:29-34

[The Lord said to Moses,] “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. ³⁰ For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. ³¹ It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. ³² And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. ³³ He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — was the most solemn day in Israel’s calendar. Once each year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with sacrificial blood to make atonement for his own sins and for the sins of the people. It was a day of fasting, repentance, and deep humility, a reminder that sin separates and that forgiveness requires sacrifice. Two goats stood at the center of the ritual: one slain, its blood carried behind the veil; the other sent away into the wilderness, bearing the people’s guilt. The message was unmistakable — sin is deadly serious, and yet God provides a way for sinners to stand in his presence.

Even Aaron, chosen and consecrated, did not approach God on his own merit. He came as a sinner in need of mercy. The ritual made something unmistakably clear: no priest stood above the need for sacrifice. And that is precisely where the writer to the Hebrews draws the contrast — for Jesus, our great High Priest, did not need to offer a sacrifice for Himself before offering Himself for the sins of the world.

Notice the far-reaching significance. Jesus did not need to offer a sacrifice for his sins before entering into the Holy of Holies at the right hand of God. And Jesus’ sacrifice was far more far-reaching than Aaron’s. Aaron offered atonement for the people of Israel. Jesus offered Himself for the sins of the world.

That last statement reveals a profound truth. I think of the atrocities of war and the horrific actions of drug lords and human traffickers. Then I think of some of the foolish sins of my youth. I think of the sins of weakness in more recent years. And I must cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

If you join me in that cry, you are in good company. Jesus said that the man who went to the temple to pray and said those words went home justified.

There are two grave dangers regarding sin and forgiveness. Both are deadly: To believe we do not desperately need God’s mercy makes Jesus’ death a mockery. To believe, on the other hand, that our sins place us beyond Christ’s redeeming love empties the cross of its power.

Neither is good. And just as Aaron had to learn and follow God’s instructions for the Day of Atonement, we too must learn the way of God today. But now the way is much simpler. Not easy — it is possible only by the help of the Holy Spirit — but simple: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That is God’s promise. Jesus’ atoning sacrifice makes it possible, and his resurrection from the grave guarantees it is true.