making the scriptures plain

Notes

Since the fall of mankind, God the Father has not often spoken to us directly, but rather through His Son. And John tells us that it is Jesus Christ who declares God the Father. Communication from God to man is through Jesus the Son.

In the Book of Leviticus Jesus speaks to Moses about obligations. You shall be holy for I am holy. You shall keep my ordinances. You shall keep my commandments. You shall keep my statutes. You shall keep my judgments. You shall keep my Sabbaths. Those that perform services for God have to be holy and a separation has to be made between the holy and the unholy. Don’t allow any abomination into the presence of the Lord. Be kind to the disabled and the stranger. When you harvest, leave some produce for the immigrant and the poor to glean. Be honest and don’t oppress anyone. There should be one law for everyone, including the immigrant.

Since all these requirements are given by Jesus Christ, who is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, every one of them that is reinforced with an 'I am the Lord' is of universal application and for all time. They cannot be relegated to Jewish application only. Yes Christianity has its requirements and we ignore these directives at our peril. Oh man, you are without excuse!

Conversely those who follow these ordinances and lifestyles will find they are not onerous, for Jesus has promised that his yoke is easy. On the contrary, instituted by our loving Creator, they will be the very best for us – blessings that uplift and empower us.

God had already provided a living example of what He was to do through His Son for man's salvation. This was the Genesis story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Numbers records another real life demonstration of the work of the coming Saviour, designed to reveal more clearly to the children of Israel what the animal sacrifices really symbolised. They were being attacked by venomous snakes. Many had already been bitten and had died. Jesus asked Moses to make a fiery serpent out of brass and place it on a pole. And it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. When we behold the Saviour on the cross today we live.

Ye shall be holy

Lev.11.44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Lev.11.45 For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

I am the LORD your God.

Lev.18.2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
Lev.18.4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

Keep mine ordinance

Lev.18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
Lev.18.6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

Commit not any one of these abominable customs

Lev.18.21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev.18.30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

Thou shalt not glean thy vineyard

Lev.19.2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Lev.19.3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
Lev.19.4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.
Lev.19.10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Thou shalt not avenge

Lev.19.12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev.19.14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.

Lev.19.16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.
Lev.19.18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

My commandments...

Lev.19.25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.

Lev.19.28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Lev.19.30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
Lev.19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Rise up before the hoary head

Lev.19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev.19.34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Lev.19.36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Lev.19.37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.

My judgements...

Lev.20.7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

Lev.20.8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.
Lev.20.24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.
Lev.20.26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

The bread of thy God

Lev.21.8 Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.
Lev.21.12 Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD.

Lev.22.2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me: I am the LORD.

My ordinances...

Lev.22.3 Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.
Lev.22.8 That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the LORD.

Lev.22.30 On the same day it shall be eaten up; ye shall leave none of it until the morrow: I am the LORD.

Keep my commandments

Lev.22.31 Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them: I am the LORD.
Lev.22.32 Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you,
Lev.22.33 That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.

And when ye reap the harvest

Lev.23.22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Lev.23.43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Lev.24.22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
Lev.25.17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.
Lev.25.38 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

My statutes...

Lev.25.55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Lev.26.1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

Lev.26.2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
Lev.26.13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

I will for their sakes remember the covenant

Lev.26.44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.

Lev.26.45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

The Levites shall be mine in place of the firstborn

Num.3.13 Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.
Num.3.41 And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.

Num.3.45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.
Num.10.10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.

The Lord in the Pillar of Cloud

Num.12.5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

The Serpant of Brass and the Cross

Num.21.4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
Num.21.5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Num.21.6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Moses made a serpent of brass

Num.21.7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
Num.21.8And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Num.21.9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.