“They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.”
Leviticus 17:7 (NIV)
We all have knowledge of the english word prostitute. As a noun it describes a person who has engaged in a sexual act in exchange for payment of some kind. As a verb it describes the action of offering yourself or someone else for sexual activity in exchange for payment of some kind. The Hebrew word used in this verse is znh and is used 61 times in the Old Testament, it appears 8 times in Hosea 4:1 thru 5:7 which is our text this Sunday int he 9:00 am service.
What is hard for us to understand is why God would use this word to describe for His people how He views our worship of other gods. God attaches a spiritual meaning to this common word, through an allegory, in which the goat idols are the johns and God’s people are the ones who offer their intimacy for payment. This can be hard to apply in our lives for those of us who live in the Quinte area in 2019, and yet there is application here, and there are wonderful truths or principles in this severe command in Leviticus 17 by which Christians may be greatly benefited.
The first principle is that we should be very careful in our spiritual lives to resist the practice of finding what God promises in other places. The Samaritan woman in John 4 tried to find the life she wanted in men. Balaam and Judas both tried to find what they needed in wealth and money. We have been warned of this danger and yet many us seek what God promises, in places other than
God Himself.
God Himself.
The second principle is that we should be very careful in our spiritual lives to resist treating God as a john and ourselves as a prostitute. Are we worshipping God and being intimate with God in order to receive payment from Him, something we desperately need and will therefore do anything we think God requires in order for us to receive from His hand? Oh child of God! May it not be so! May we seek Him for Him, and may we be satisfied with Him and Him alone. May we trust Him to provide what we truly need, not what we so desperately desire.
The last principle is the central point of the entire chapter. The point of this chapter is to give a command to God’s people that if obeyed by God’s people will keep them from spiritual prostitution. They are to only offer their sacrifice to the priest at the tabernacle. They are to teach themselves through obedience that God will only accept us when we approach His Mediator at the place God has chosen. For the Israelites that was the priest at the tabernacle, where the blood was offered as an atonement for their sins. For us it is our Lord Jesus Christ at the cross where His blood paid our price. We are to approach God in worship only through Jesus Christ and at the place where he died for our sins. For the Israelites this required great physical effort to get themselves and the animals to the tabernacle. For us it simply requires a bowed head wherever we are, as we worship God in spirit and truth, coming to our Lord confessing our sins and thanking Him for His forgiveness and grace that will help us live our lives for Him this day.
May we make this our practice daily, even hourly as we say NO to spiritual prostitution.
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