Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Leviticus 15-16
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 73
Key Verse
Leviticus 16:1 — “And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died;”
Devotional Thought
The book of Leviticus is not easy reading, and chapters fifteen and sixteen may be the most difficult of all. Here Moses receives detailed laws about bodily discharges, ritual uncleanness, and the washing that restores a person to the community. A man with a running issue, a woman in her monthly separation, husband and wife in their intimacy—all of these made a person unclean until evening, requiring bathing, laundering, and sometimes sacrifice. The point was not that the body is evil but that Israel’s God is holy, and His tabernacle stood in the midst of a people who carried frailty and mortality in their very flesh. Uncleanness was not chiefly about sin; it was about the chasm between the living God and a dying people. The remedy was always cleansing, and the goal was always communion.
Then comes the Day of Atonement, the heart of the whole book. After the shocking deaths of Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire before the LORD, Aaron is warned not to enter the holy place at just any time. Once a year, on the tenth day of the seventh month, he comes with blood—a bullock for himself, a goat for the people—and sprinkles it on the mercy seat within the veil. Then he lays both hands on the live goat, confesses over it all the iniquities of Israel, and sends it away into the wilderness, bearing their sins to a land not inhabited. Two goats, one slain and one sent away: the wages of sin paid, and the sin itself carried off, gone.
You may have felt something of Asaph’s struggle in Psalm 73 this week. He watched the wicked prosper, saw their strength firm and their troubles few, and nearly stumbled. “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,” he almost said. But then he went into the sanctuary of God, and there he understood. That is where these two readings meet. The world measures by prosperity; the sanctuary measures by holiness and atonement. In the tabernacle, uncleanness was dealt with, sin was confessed, blood was shed, and the scapegoat vanished into the desert. The clean heart Asaph longed for was not a myth; it was provided for, once a year, by a priest in linen garments.
We read these chapters in late June, in ordinary days of heat and work, and we may wonder what they have to do with us. Everything, if we read them rightly. They teach us that sin is not a small thing, that it separates, that it must be atoned for—and they teach us that God Himself provided the atonement. The washings and the blood all pointed forward to a better Priest and a better sacrifice. As Asaph found, it is good to draw near to God; the sanctuary is where our slippery feet are steadied and our foolish envy is silenced.
Reflection
- The scapegoat carried Israel’s sins into an uninhabited land, never to return. Do you live as though your confessed sin is truly gone, or do you keep going back to the wilderness to dig it up again?
- Asaph nearly slipped when he compared his lot to the prosperity of the wicked. What comparison in your life this week is pulling your feet toward that same slippery place, and what would it look like to bring it into the sanctuary?
Prayer
Holy God, You dwelt among a people who could not keep themselves clean, and You made a way for them to draw near. We confess that our own hands are not innocent and our hearts are not pure apart from Your mercy. Thank You for the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat and for the goat sent away into the wilderness, bearing sins to a land not inhabited. Thank You that our iniquities are removed from us, not merely covered. Steady our slippery feet, Lord; silence our envy of the prosperous and the proud. Be the strength of our heart and our portion forever, until we are received into glory. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 73:1 — “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.”