In a couple of months thousands of people will set out to run the Boston Marathon and their greatest challenge will be around mile 20.5 in Newton when they hit heartbreak hill. As we make our way through Leviticus in our Life Journal reading some people may feel like they are hitting hearbreak hill. You are pushing on, but honestly it can be difficult to understand how this applies to our life today. I can relate, I have also been reading about the sacrifices and the instructions for taking care of different diseases, including looking at the color of a spot and waiting for it to "scab" over - pretty gross, right?

I know reading these instructions to the nation of Israel can be a challenge, here are a couple of my big picture observations thus far. In this morning's reading in Leviticus 18:3 God tells the people that He does not want them to be like the people whom they left in Egypt nor like the people where they are going in Canaan. These people have been in slavery for 400 years, much of their identity and culture has been determined for them by the nation who has been oppressing them. God knows that they are vulnerable to simply assimilating into the culture around them. So now that God has taken the people out of Egypt, He is now using this time in the desert to get the Egypt out of the people. He is giving the people a religious and cultural system, He is giving them an identiy as a people. It happens in our life God may take us away from a situation, but he also needs to get the situation out of our lives, minds, and hearts, before we are truly free.

All the instructions about sacrifice remind me how serious an issue sin is and how offensive it is to God. It is costly (an animal was valuable) it is bloody, messy, smelly, and quite disgusting - just like sin. Thank you Jesus for being our sacrifice and freeing us from the need to make animal sacrifices.

All the instructions about disease tell me that God cares not only about worship and religious issues, but about the well being of the people and all their needs. Thank you God for caring about the health of my body as well as the health of my soul.

Those are just some of my thoughts from Leviticus, I would love to read some of yours.