An Unusual Sacrifice Series

(This is the 2nd in a series dedicated to the most boring Scriptures in the Bible. At least… the things many people regard as boring)

For some people, there’s nothing more boring than the tedious, almost unending regulations that God gave His people in Leviticus. In fact, when most people attempt to read through the Bible, they tend to just skip over Leviticus because there is only one interesting story in the entire book (the story of Nadab and Abihu). Everything is stuff like sacrifices and lists of clean and unclean things.

I did a search on Sermoncentral (an internet website where I put all my sermons) to see how many sermons other preachers had preached on this book. There are 1000s of preachers who’ve preached 1000s upon 1000s of sermons on that site. Out of all 1000s upon 1000s of sermons on that site guess how many sermons were on Sermoncentral? (268… and 2 of them are mine).

I even looked to see how many times the New Testament quoted Leviticus. And guess what – nobody in the NT quoted from this book. Even Jesus didn’t quote from Leviticus. They would quote from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, but nothing out of Leviticus.

Leviticus would appear to be the boringest book in the Bible… except it isn’t really boring.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work..” And that includes Leviticus. Which means there are powerful lessons to be learned about God’s will for our lives even in this book.

Hold that thought.

OPEN: In my files I have the story of an elderly woman named Adele Gaboury of Worcester, Massachusetts. One of her brother’s told police he believed she had gone to a nursing home, and her neighbors – believing that - began watching her property.

• One neighbor started paying her grandson $10 twice a month to mow the lawn.

• Another neighbor noticed the mail wasn’t fitting in the mail slot, so he opened her door, and 100s of pieces of mail fell out. He notified police, and the deliveries were stopped.

• Later someone else noticed that the house’s pipes had frozen and water was spilling out the door The utility company was called to shut off the water.

After 4 years, the police finally investigated the house as a health hazard and they were shocked to find (pause for effect) Adele’s body inside. The Washington Post reported police now believe she’d died of natural causes 4 years previously. (The Washington Post 10/27/93)

APPLY: Nobody knew that she’d died.

Everything seemed so “normal”.

Death lay inside the house… but nobody knew.

By contrast Leviticus 14 tells us of a disease that literally turned people into the walking dead. You couldn’t miss the fact. Those who had leprosy were dying – inside and out. It was obvious from the disfigurement of their bodies.

Leprosy would start with specks on the eyelids and on the palms, gradually spreading over the body. One of the effects of the disease was that it destroy the nerve endings, and the victim couldn’t feel pain or realize when they’d burned themselves, or if they’d broken a bone. Thus they’d end up damaging and destroying parts of their bodies without realizing it.

Faucet’s Bible Dictionary said that the most common form of leprosy…

* inflamed the skin,

* distorted the face and joints,

* and caused the hair of the head or eyebrows to fall off or else turn white, {#Le 13:3-6}

It would often begin in the forehead {#2Ch 26:19-21} with shining white patches which would burst.

And from the skin, the disease would eat inward to the bones, rotting the whole body piecemeal. Bone after bone would drop off; and the skin would be mummy-like; the lips hang down from the mouth exposing the teeth and gums.

It was horrible way to die.

And although leprosy wasn’t excessively contagious… there was some possibility of infection. And so Lepers were social outcasts required to live outside the camp and unable to take part in the sacrifices offered at the Tabernacle.

Now there were other diseases a person could have, but no other disease was treated like leprosy. You could catch your death of cold. You could suffer the indignities of the flu. You could have an infection or be paralyzed, have cancer or heart disease. But none of those diseases would require you to go the priest to be offer sacrifices for your cleansing. Only Lepers were required to do this.

Only Leprosy called for the person who was healed to present themselves to the priests

o shave their head

o bathe their bodies

o and make sacrifices before their God