Read Through the Bible in a Year 2018 Day 34: Good in My Sight

Good afternoon, everyone!

Today I read Leviticus 8-10.

And boy, do some interesting things happen!

I'm going to start with Aaron's sons.

Now, if you did the reading with me, you'll know that they did a very bad thing.

They took it upon themselves to change the way offerings were made to God, adding incense to it, and thus causing an unpleasant smell to waft up to God.

And they did so in God's most holy place. And they lost their lives for it.

And then Aaron does something bad too. He disobeys God.

Now, in the chapters we read today, the Bible doesn't explicitly say that what Aaron did was bad, but just wait.

So, part of the offering was left for the priests, so that they would be taken care of. And they were supposed to eat their part of the sin offering, they and their families.

But Aaron refuses, instead burning the offering, and he explains that he could not eat a sin offering because of what happened to his sons.

Leviticus 10:19-20 - But Aaron spoke to Moses, "Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD. When things like these happened to me, if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the LORD?" When Moses heard that it seemed good in his sight.

Uh oh.

Now it turns out okay. Aaron doesn't want to eat the offering that was offered when his sons were killed for their sin on that day, and Moses understands. But usually, whenever you see something like "it seemed good in his sight," and it's not talking about God, especially when the word seemed is in there, it means trouble.

I found some research that pointed out that Aaron didn't want to offer God less than his best worship/offering and so, because he couldn't do his part with the right heart, he didn't do it at all.

And that's fine. God is understanding. And merciful. Sometimes, to human thinking, it doesn't always seem that way, but He is.

Now, the reason I pointed that out, and made a point of contradicting myself even though I didn't have to is to point this out:

The wording.

"It seemed good in his sight."

When you read something like that in the Bible and it's referring to anyone who isn't God, it's usually bad.

It seemed good in the sight of Aaron's sons to disobey God and get a little creative with their offerings.

Sometimes that happens to us, doesn't it?

It does to me, anyway.

Sometimes something seems good to me, but it isn't good to God.

So, the wording of the last verse of the last chapter was important to me today because it reminded me of that.

There are a lot of things that people consider good, but if it isn't good according to God's Word, and His laws, it's bad.

Every time.

And yes, there is a wrong way to make offerings to God.

Doing it with a wrong heart, or the wrong mindset is one of them. We can even offer the wrong sacrifices to God.

I know we don't use animals anymore. But we use our worship, our praise, our prayers, our tithes, our time, our gifts. And we can do it wrong.

Thankfully, God is merciful, compassionate, and understanding. And the Holy Spirit will teach us what is right and good in His sight, so that we don't have to rely on our own judgement. We can't always use our own judgment, but we can always rely on God's wisdom.

So, that's what was impressed upon me today. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below!

I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I read Leviticus 11-13.