God Showed Us Love in Leviticus

Back to Leviticus for a minute . . .

When we were toddlers, an adult (usually our mother) took us by the hand to help us cross the street. We had no clue why we had to hold hands, we just did it. As we grew older, we were taught to look this way and that way before crossing the street, and so we learned that it was important to watch out for on-coming cars in order to cross safely. Before we knew it, we were grabbing the hands of young children, teaching them to cross the street the same way we had learned; by example and by instruction. It wasn't that our parents/caregivers didn't want us to cross on our own, they just knew we had to be taught how and cautioned about the dangers when we were able to understand them. So from the first

"Don't go out into that street," to the last

"Take my hand so we can cross,"

we learned how to proceed safely and now we cross without even thinking about it.

The laws in Leviticus are the same. God wants us to be able to live righteously on our own, but He knows that without direction we don't exactly know how to maneuver across the busy road of life and we don't know what dangers await us. So God gave the Israelites a road map. He showed them exactly how things needed to be done to ensure their safety, their good health and their spiritual maturity.

Today, He still speaks through the Old Testament and through the New Testament to let us know how we should live. And, even though we don't always understand why we should follow His commands, we know that He won't let us walk out into the street blind. In His word, we're assured that if we let Him, He'll take our hand and guide us and teach us, until we have completed His will for our lives. We need to avail ourselves to the reading of His word; the Word where He gives us a road map on living; the Word that shows how much He really does love us.