Lessons in Leadership

Leviticus 8-10 has so many interesting lessons in spiritual leadership that, although it was intended for the Israelites and the Levites, the principles can still be applicable to us today.

-  The Lord gives direct leadership responsibilities to some - like Moses.

-  The Lord often has them pass on some of that leadership responsibility in order to more effectively carry out His work - like Moses did to Aaron and his sons
.
-  The job of leadership isn't always a pretty one.  Sometimes leaders have to get dirty - like when Aaron and his sons stood before God and the people and had part of the blood offering sprinkled on them.

- The Lord holds leaders up to a high standard as others are looking to them for direction - like Aaron's two sons who offered their way instead of God's.

- Sometimes leaders may disagree, but they need to be open to listen to each other as the Lord may have given insight to one of them - like when Moses reprimanded Aaron and his sons for not eating of the sin offering given for his first two sons, and Aaron responded with a statement of truth and a question for Moses.

Being a leader is not an easy business, but the Lord will give all the strength and grace needed to handle the responsibilities.

Lord, please help me to have the true heart of a leader - the heart of a servant, and the heart of a follower of You.

Provided For - on the Lord's Terms

As God continues to use Moses to instruct both the Israelites and the Levites in the procedures of the various sacrifices, two things seem to be extremely evident:

1.  The Lord was extremely detailed in exactly how all parts of the sacrifice were to be handled.
2.  The Lord supplied abundantly for His servants.

The Lord will take care of those in His service, but the service is to be done on His terms - not ours.

Lord, help me to do your work with the spirit of a servant - serving not in the tabernacle, but before your living temples, entrusting to you the meeting of my daily spiritual, physical, and emotional needs.

Pleasing Aroma to the Lord

One thing that I found interesting when reading about the sacrifices is how often the statement "an offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord" is repeated.  In the midst of the blood and burning meat, a statement that peaceful and serene just doesn't seem to fit.

But when you consider that our sense of smell has the greatest "memory," and that it is individual to everyone (no one smells or remembers smells exactly the same), it seems a fitting statement.  The Lord is choosing to see this aroma as pleasing.  I can only imagine that hundreds of years later when it was His Son serving as the sacrifice - once for all - that the memory of all those offerings came to His mind.

Today, may the offerings of my heart be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

For Me

Leviticus 1:4

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 

When the Isrealites gave a sacrifice as a burnt offering for sin, they had to physically place their hands on the animal; in essences they were placing their sin on that animal.  They would then have to actually kill the animal before the priest could offer it as a sacrifice.  WOW!  Today we take sin so casually.  It's almost as if we do all we can to disassociate ourselves from the sin.  How much greater would our awareness of the cost of sin be if we were close enough to place our hands on the Son of God before driving the nails in His hands and feet - transferring our sins to the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

Every sin I choose to commit was carried by Christ to the cross, 
yet He chose to stay there for me.

Serving in the Lord

Exodus 38:22-23
Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses; and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

Sometimes we forget that serving the Lord isn't just the job of church leadership. These two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, were so crucial to the building of the tabernacle because they had skills and abilities that the Levities didn't. God made us all unique in our gifts - not for our benefit, but to serve Him and to bless and build up others.

How well am I doing at using my special, God-given talents in the service of the Lord?

Didn't Even Know

Exodus 34:29b  

Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone

because he had been talking with God.

Moses had spent more time, yet again, with the Lord during the second getting of the law.  He was up there for 40 days and 40 nights.  It even said that he didn't eat or drink during that time, which helps to show where his focus really was.  Spending that much time with the Lord had an impact on Moses.  What about me?

Is my connection to the Lord so close and so intimate, that I reflect Him without even knowing it?