Devos for Feb. 8th (By Jordan W.)

Leviticus 9:23-24

What happens when God hurls a fireball into the middle of your church service?  Ask Moses, Aaron and the rest of the Israelites on the day that God showed up and they could tell you.  If you were to wade through the cowering masses as smoke rises from the alter and choose someone, anyone, they would all tell you the same thing. 

"We gathered to sacrifice to God.  This wasn't the first time that we had done this, so I guess we were not expecting anything different.  Sure Moses told us that we would see the presence of God today, but nobody expected this!"

So, what were they expecting?

Ever since God sprung the Israelites out of Egypt, they labored under a heavy burden of sin.  God had repeatedly said that they were an “ungrateful, stiff necked people” and on this day in the book of Leviticus, it was time for the people to be made clean.  They gathered in front of the tabernacle and sacrificed to God.  This was an atonement that would be an ancient foreshadowing of Christ dying on a cross for our sin.  Finally, stubborn Israel stood clean before their God.  And, once they were clean, they cleared the way for God to show up with His consuming fire.  Repentance always clears the way for God to show up.  Just ask John the Baptist about that (but do that a different time, we are still dealing with the Israelites).

So, I ask again, “what were they expecting?”  Probably to just make atonement, feel good about themselves and go back home.  Unfortunately, we often come to our church services expecting the same thing.  We come to church to be made clean, it makes us feel good, and then we split.  But how often do we come to church expecting God to show up?  Israel sure didn’t, they were terrified when the presence of God came.  Now, I am not suggesting to you that if God comes and starts chucking fireballs in church tomorrow that I am going to play it cool and tell you “I told you so”.  That’s not what I am saying, what I am saying is that I WANT him to show up!  And, I wonder what would happen if each of us came expecting the same thing, to be made clean and see God’s presence.  Maybe we would walk out of church better than we came in.  Maybe we would walk out feeling pure and holy.  Or maybe, just maybe we would walk out completely on fire.

Prayer
God, do not allow us to enter your presence without an expectation of being touched by you.