Topic: Requirements For Holiness [Tuesday July 4, 2017]
Text: Leviticus 19:33-37
Key Verse: “Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:37).
In all ages and dispensations, God expects total obedience from His people. In today’s text, the Lord itemised a list of dos and don’ts which ranged from spiritual concerns to social and moral matters. The children of Israel were to recognise the benevolence of the Lord in making their land fruitful. They were to acknowledge and worship Him with the fruit of the land so they could both praise the Lord as their provider and understand that their prosperity was not the product of their power and might (Leviticus 19:23-26).
The Lord was careful to give them the details of the proper way to eat things that had blood (Leviticus 19:26). Socio-cultural matters, including physical appearance, relationships, decency, respect for the elderly and cordial treatment of strangers are included without underestimating the sins of idolatry, familiar-spirit and ritual cuttings or marking of the flesh (evident today in tattooing) (Leviticus 19:27-34). Unrighteousness in legal and economic matters are also intolerable in His presence. The Lord wanted Israel to know that they were a peculiar people overseen and cared for by the God of heaven and they were to be different from their idolatrous neighbours.
The dealing of the LORD with Israel is a shadow of a more excellent relationship with the Christian in the New Testament. Washed, bought and saved by the precious blood of Jesus, the Christian has been “quickened” from the nature of trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). The Lord pleads with you “by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). The Bible also counsels: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
Thought for the day: Holy living is the key into the heart of God.
Bible Reading in one Year: Genesis 11-13
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
