Week 7 Living With Fire: Dangerous Material More Powerful Than The Atom


My Daily Portion:
Monday: Exodus 35-36, Psalms 43, Luke 7.
Tuesday: Exodus 37-38, Psalms 44, Luke 8..
Wednesday: Exodus 39-40, Psalms 45, Luke 9.
Thursday: Leviticus 1-2, Psalms 46, Luke 10.
Friday: Leviticus 3-4, Psalms 47, Luke 11.
Saturday: Leviticus 5-6, Psalms 48, Luke 12.
Sunday: Leviticus 7-8, Psalms 49, Luke 13.

This entry is taken from the Student Bible, copyright 1986 by The Zondervan Corporation, NIV.


Leviticus seems mighty strange to the modern world. Unlike most of the Bible, it has few personalities and stories, and no poetry. Instead, it is crammed full of detailed rules and procedures.

Its painstaking ritual is, however, strikingly similar to the procedure surrounding nuclear technology. The specialized clothing, the concern for purification, the precise handling of crucial materials - both nuclear workers and Old Testament priests share these. This similarity gives an important clue to understanding Leviticus.

Cleaning Up a Nuclear Spill
At the Hanford plutonium separation plant in eastern Washington, plutonium and U-235 are kept in a special high-security vault, in brass cans wrapped three times in plastic. To move the radioactive material, specially trained handlers don white protection overall and special breather masks. They never touch the materials except through a sealed "glove box."

If an accident occurs, such as a small fire ignited by the "hot " material, the entire area must be cleansed through laborious scrubbing with soap and water. Carefully trained workers dispose of the dirty water in a specially protected toxic waste area. Anyone contaminated must be similarly "cleansed" from the exposure. In extreme cases, she or he must stay away from other people for months.

These rigid rules grew from hard experience. For decades no one knew the dangers of radioactivity. Workers who used radioactive materials to hand-paint the first "glow in the dark" watches licked their paintbrushes to get a fine tip; their supervisors said they would gain sex appeal. Instead, they got cancer. The introduction of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants increased the amount of radioactive material being handled. Gradually scientists realized: if you are going to use the atom, you must adopt procedures to fit its power.

The Intimate Presence of God
Leviticus reads something like a training manual for atomic plant workers. Its "dangerous material," however, is more powerful than the atom. Leviticus gives exhaustive detail on how to live with God.

A pamphlet on "how to survive a nuclear accident" may be dull if read on vacation, but it's gripping if read in a vibrating nuclear reactor. Similarly, Leviticus is dull if you do not realize the wonderful news behind it: a powerful God, the creator of the universe, has entered the life of a small and insignificant tribe. The Israelites could not merely fit this God into their lives. They needed to restructure their lives - food, sex, economics, - to fit with this. It was essential not just for priests, but for everyone.

Ignoring the operations manual could be deadly. It was for Aaron's two sons (chapter 10).

Free From Contamination
Today, because of Jesus Christ, we don't live in the world of Leviticus. Jesus' perfect self-sacrifice made the daily sacrifice of animals unnecessary. He replaced the high priest as our representative before God. Jesus cleanses the real source of contamination, our sinful nature. Leviticus was meant to teach people some basic truths about God, and when their lessons were complete, they could go on to bigger and better things. (The New Testament book of Hebrews spells out this graduation.)

Yet we need to be reminded of the principals Leviticus taught. It tells us that God was then, as he is today, "a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). He has taught us how to live with that fire, not because we deserve to know, but because he wanted our company. We dare not treat him lightly.

HOW TO READ LEVITICUS
Many well-intentioned readers ,determined to read the Bible from beginning to end, bog down in Leviticus. It's a law book, a procedural manual for getting along with a holy and powerful God. Sheer detail can bore you, especially if you miss the point behind it.

When you read the Bible, careful attention to detail is usually a key to understanding. In Leviticus, however, you will get more from looking at the big picture than from studying the details. Some laws we simply don't understand. But Leviticus as a whole shows what kind of people God wanted Israel to be. As you read, keep your mind on the big picture. Pay special attention to the explanatory notes. Try to imagine how these laws affected everyday life. Keep asking yourself: how would these laws make the Israelites different from other people - and why were those differences important to God?