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Weekly Guide：2024-2025 Week 11
March 17, 2024
Week 11 Day 1: Care of Skin ⇧ ⇩
Question
What were the regulations on taking care of the Israelites’ skin?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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Continued with regulations to keep Israelites holy in order to worship God.
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Skin diseases such as the horrible leprosy are easily transmitted. The priests took great care when examining skin diseases. Anyone contracted skin diseases needed to go through a long and elaborative cleansing and offering process.
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Israelites not only had to keep their skins clean, their clothes and houses also needed the same attention.
Meditation: My Story
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Identity - Transmittable skin diseases such as leprosy often being assimilated to man’s sin. Cleansing and offering are assimilated to reconciling with God. Putting blood on ear lobe, hand, toe, and thumb are likened to the consecration of the priests. Jesus had already redeemed us through His blood and completely satisfied all necessary cleansing and offering. His sacrifice was complete and perfect. Let me pray and thank Him for everything He had done for me.
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Integrity - The source of skin diseases is not limited to skin but the cloth we wear and the house we live in, as well. Same can be said about sin. It may come from anything around us. How does the cleansing process in these two chapters remind me?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Week 11 Day 2: Day of Atonement ⇧ ⇩
Question
What are the other regulations to keep the Israelites holy?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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More regulations to keep the Israelites holy so they may worship God.
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Chapter 15 is about bodily discharges. It was aimed to keep the Israelites “separate from things that make them unclean.” This is so that “they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place.”
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Chapter 16 is the regulation for the Day of Atonement. During this day, all Israelites need to keep sabbath, deny themselves, cleanse, and atone for all their sins.
Meditation: My Story
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Identity - All offerings and cleansing were to help the Israelites to become a nation of holiness. It was to separate them from the unclean. The holy God promised to walk with me and asks me to be holy. What does this remind me?
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Integrity - God established the annual Day of Atonement. Israelites could restart from a new beginning with their sins forgiven. But this did not mean that they could take their sins lightly. My sins were forgiven because of Jesus Christ. How do I view my own sins?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Week 11 Day 3: Holiness of Conduct ⇧ ⇩
Question
What behaviors does God forbid?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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God told the Israelites that in order to be holy, they need to behave holy.
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Chapter 17 was about blood. Blood is holy. In the covenant God made with Noah, animal’s meats were edible “but you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4) “for the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.” (Leviticus 17:11)
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Chapter 18 is about adultery. Marriage is holy. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” (Hebrews 13:4) God warned the Israelites not to defile themselves by conforming to the unclean culture of the Canaanite in the land they were to enter.
Meditation: My Story
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Identity - God said, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.” The blood of animal can only clean a man’s sins temporary. Only Jesus Christ’s blood can cleanse forever. We have to atone our sins in front of God in order to receive the cleansing blood. How should I live to show my respect to Jesus’ precious blood?
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Community - God established marriage and we all need to respect that and keep it holy. God warned Israelites not to conform to the Canaanites. Nowadays, marriage is currently being attacked from all fronts in the world we live in. How do I keep myself holy within my marriage and not conform to the society?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Week 11 Day 4: Observe the Statutes ⇧ ⇩
Question
What other conducts are not pleasing to God?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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Chapter 19 details the morality, regulations, worship, and spiritual life and covers all the Ten Commandments. A total of 16 short sections with each ending with the phrase “I am the Lord.” “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” is the basis for calling upon the people to live holy lives. “Love your neighbor as yourself” appears in the verses and tells Israelites that the standard of holiness is not just keeping the law, but also to actively live out its virtue.
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Chapter 20 is an addendum to chapters 18 and 19. It’s the punishment for those who rebel and unholy. Those who committed offenses must face severe punishments, executed, or cut off.
Meditation: My Story
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Community - Sin is not something private. It spreads and brings down the whole community like yeast in the dough. We not only are responsible for our own holiness but fellow Christians, too. How do these two chapters remind me of my view toward sin?
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Integrity - Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. This was the basis for God to elect Israelites and a basis for my life. Is there any part of my life I need to pay more attention in order to be holy?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Week 11 Day 5: The Holy Priesthood ⇧ ⇩
Question
What are other requirements for priests?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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The priests are set apart from the rest of the people for God. The requirements for the priests are even higher. God set clear priority to their duty and daily lives.
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Holy objects are set apart for God. Israelites needed to keep these objects holy.
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The phrases “I am the Lord who makes them holy” or similar appeared 6 times and “I am the Lord” appeared 6 times, as well.
Meditation: My Story
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Identity - God set high standards for the priests. How does today’s passage remind me that I am a chosen royal priest?
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Fidelity - What’s my priority comparing my tasks at hand and serving God? What do the requirements God set for the priests remind me of?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Week 23 Day 2: The Holy Priesthood ⇧ ⇮
Question
What are other requirements for priests?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
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The priests are set apart from the rest of the people for God. The requirements for the priests are even higher. God set clear priority to their duty and daily lives.
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Holy objects are set apart for God. Israelites needed to keep these objects holy.
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The phrases “I am the Lord who makes them holy” or similar appeared 6 times and “I am the Lord” appeared 6 times, as well.
Meditation: My Story
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Identity - God set high standards for the priests. How does today’s passage remind me that I am a chosen royal priest?
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Fidelity - What’s my priority comparing my tasks at hand and serving God? What do the requirements God set for the priests remind me of?