When we announced the next semester’s schedule, you could audibly hear the moans and groans. “We’ll be teaching Leviticus, along with...” The common response was, “Leviticus?!” I assured them God’s counsel in Leviticus is as relevant today as it was in the days of Moses. Most of the Pastors and Ministry Leaders were not convinced. But they showed up...and so did God.
One of the greatest challenges came in discussing the Sanctity of Blood. Blood was, early in the Law, “set apart” and designated for holy purposes: teaching the Israelites the anctity of Life, the Holiness of God and the Penalty of Sin, namely Death. God often uses such physical items to reveal profound Spiritual Truths. The Pastors readily accepted the expositional teachings until we came to the prohibitions regarding Blood. God required that no animal sacrifices were to be performed anywhere except at the Tabernacle. is was to preclude synchronization with Egyptian and Canaanite blood sacrifices to false gods...
"They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons , after whom they have played the harlot ...Whatever man...who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer it to the LORD,that man shall be cut off... And whatever man...eats any Blood, I will set My face against that person... For the life of the flesh is in the Blood...it is the Blood that makes atonement for the soul."
This biblical principle applies today. We are not offer, prayers, obeisance or any act of worship in any ways other than how God prescribes. God defines how we are to approach im, not vice-versa. Leviticus 10 soberly warns us of the penalty for offering worship however or whatever way we please. “Profane fire” is an abomination to God. Boundless religion then and now often includes the rituals and traditions of pagan worship. God drew the boundary lines for the Israelites...and for us. Boundaries that may not be popular or politically correct.
East African rituals involving blood continue to this day. Animal sacrifices are used in public ceremonies, marriages, puberty rites, vows, witchcraft and in funerals. The shedding of blood is accepted as a symbol of sincerity and seriousness, of sealing a vow, and of appeasing the ancestors. Culturally it is not only acceptable but expected. To do otherwise is to supposedly invite curses, tribulations, evil spirits and chaos into your life. And so, the "traditions of the fathers” continue unabated...even within the “church.” Some pastors even in the Bible Schools continue with animal sacrifices, ceremonially drink blood, and shed animal blood for rituals. Blood sacrifices are essential to such idolatrous rites. God knew this of the generation coming out of Egypt, and of the Canaanites in the Promised Land...where Israel was headed. And so, God set boundaries to eradicate this from His people...banishing pagan worship and inserting Holy worship of the One True God, the Giver of Life... as opposed to Satan, the Devourer of Life. Little did we know God would use these teachings imminently.
Pastor Kenedy is one of the Bible School administrators. Last semester Pastor Kenedy suddenly took leave for two weeks. He had raced to his upcountry home village to rescue his father. A father who had banished him 20 years before.
“Brother Paul, I must go, and go now. My father is dying. I must see him. I must speak to him one last time.”
Upon return, the entire Bible School heard his testimony...
“When I became a Christian 20 years ago, my father beat me so hard I had blood pouring out of my body. He then dragged me out of his house and locked the door. I was left to live on the streets of Nairobi. I had no other relatives in the city. I lived from hand to mouth for years.
My father was a polygamist. I am the first-born son of his first wife. Even so, God laid it on my heart to never disrespect my father. So, for the past 20 years, I have seen him from time to time. I always spoke respectfully to him and his wives. But he never once received me into his home. I tried to reach him with the Gospel of Jesus Christ many times. It only enraged him. It made him truly mad.”
“I was called home because my father was deathly ill. He could not speak; he could not eat; he could not sit up. It was clear that he was going to die. My family forbid me to be alone with my father or to speak about my Jesus. On the second day, I prayed to God with all my heart,
“God, open the door for me to share Your Gospel. I don’t ask you for my father’s life. I only ask you that he have life with You.
When I arrived at the hospital that day, my father sat up! He was alert! He could even speak. One ‘wife’ was there who forbid me as I began to speak. It was then that I said,
‘No! I will speak! And no one will stop me!’”
God had opened the door. Kenedy spoke the Words of Life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His father readily listened with great eagerness, sincerity and sobriety. The father repented, believed and received Jesus Christ as his Savior. The prodigal father had “come to his senses.” Within hours, he died...but “in Christ.” Received as a son, into an everlasting home.
The son rejected from his father’s home, had led that same father to our Heavenly Father.
Kennedy continued to testify about the subsequent funeral and burial rites. “My family wanted to do a traditional burial. I refused. They wanted to kill the bull at the doorstep of my father’s house. Everyone must walk through the blood to enter the house of the deceased. I refused. My relatives and neighbors were so incensed, they began breaking furniture, fighting and beating me. They tried to steal my father’s body. I had to call the police. Throughout it all, I kept hearing one thing...
‘Remember Leviticus. Now do My Word.’
I never compromised once. No one stood with me. Not one person. I told them,
‘NO! My father died a Christian. He gave his life to Jesus. The Light of Jesus has come into this family.
And that is the Way we are going. If you have any other way you want to go, any other rituals you want to do, you will not do them here!’” Kenedy said everyone went silent. Fear of the One and True God had come.
His testimony continued. “I am not mourning for my father. I am joyful. I left my family yesterday. They are weeping, mourning, fighting over the land, possessions, and even the corpse. I had to dig up my father’s grave and rebury him in concrete, so that they will not defile his corpse in their demonic rituals. My father had cut me, the firstborn son, completely out of his Will. That was done 20 years ago. I had to pay for my father’s medical bills, funeral and burial myself. I had all the responsibilities of the first born son. And I will receive none of the privileges. But that is fine with me.
My father was lost. But now he is home with God our Father. My family was bound in Darkness. Now the Light has come.
I went upcountry to bury my father. And I come back to you to say, ‘My father died, but he lives! As God set him free, we must be free of these traditions. They are not harmless culture. In Leviticus, God told us they are demonic and evil.”
He closed with this.
"Don’t think you can continue to study the Word of God and not do what it says.
Don’t think you can continue the practices and traditions of our ancestors, and simply call it culture. Don’t say we are a ‘New Testament church’ and have no need of the Old Testament Books. It is all One Book from One God for our instruction in ‘life and godliness.’
I thank God for the Book of Leviticus. God used it to save my father. And I believe it will save the others in my family. All the Word of God is profitable. Every single Word. We ignore it to our own peril.”
