Week 7
Mark 13-16 and Leviticus 1-18
Did y’all get a major sense of deja vu when reading Mark? or was that just me?
The whole book of Mark, I spent flipping back to Matthew and reviewing my notes from Matthew because I just kept thinking, we’ve already read this! It’s interesting to me that the word of God felt that this information was important enough to repeat! And to repeat it in a slightly different way- it’s pretty much the same stories and the same details but presented from a different perspective so the details and order varies just slightly, which makes me wonder- was this to further ingrain it in our brains? or maybe to reach more people by appealing to different reading/ learning styles?
Then again- Stortz leads us back to the Old Testament so let’s get into Leviticus!! Again WOW, I’m blown away by the level of detail here. As I’m taking my notes, I’m thinking to myself- “have I ever written the word slaughter so many times- ever?! I am very curious how all this works- I mean we have all the details right here, but what about the logistics? These people are in the desert but they seem to have an endless supply of firewood (the fire in the altar is to burn continuously, right?) and they must have a nearly endless supply of animals- where are all these doves coming from? And the grain?- again aren’t they in the desert?? And what in the world about all that blood- does it just stay on the sides of the altar or does it get cleaned off at some point? And if so, who drew that short straw to be the blood cleaner?! With all this blood on the altar, on the base of the altar, on the horns- isn’t the tent going to smell? And how in the world are they actually slaughtering all these animals- the birds they wring their necks, ok got it, but like the bulls and goats- are they slitting their throats? As I’m reading, making my notes, writing this, etc- I feel my face getting all scrunched up because EWWWWW!! I do not do blood; can’t do it, I will straight up pass out so I’m feeling a little queasy after reading this passage.
So my main takeaway here, is THANK YOU JESUS!! Thank you Jesus for dying for me, thank you God for your unconditional love and never ending grace. Not to skip ahead or anything- but WE DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANY OF THAT!! We don’t have to make a chart and keep up with which animal to sacrifice when or how. We don’t have to ask the priest to make atonement on our behalf. Jesus already did it; He was the ultimate sacrifice; by the grace of God, He saved us and THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS 🙌