Leviticus 6-9 To be refined as Gold

It has been challenging to read this book so far. I struggle to find anything to learn from yet there are still some verses stand out that I will try to interpret them. 

"The fire on the alter must burn continually; it must not be allowed to go out. The priests are to feed wood to the fire every morning, arrange the burnt offering on the fire, and offer up the fat portions of the peace offerings. The fire on the altar must burn continually; it must not be allowed to go out." 

(Leviticus 6:12-13)

I see that fire represents our connection, faith and relationship with God. We are called to be continually be in communication with Him. And the act of feeding wood to the fire every morning can be seen as our spiritual practice or quiet time with the Lord daily. It is very essential to start practicing to take some time out of a day to connect to the Lord as well as my inner self. 

"Also a person who comes into contact with something impure - whether it pertains to human or animal impurity or something totally detestable creatures - and then eats some of the meat from the sacrifice of My peace offerings must be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21)

The literal sense of this verse seems difficult to swallow. Because God wanted those who came into contact with something impure to be cut off from his people. Being cut off could be being shunned, excluded or worse, killed. But to see through the lens of Jesus, God is not barbarian that likes to slaughter humans. I interpret those "impure" things like bad habits, vices and malice. We are called to not tolerate those "impure" things - anything that is not good for us physically or spiritually or even toxic people in our life. The best thing to do is to cut them off from our life. Of course, the world is not perfect and we aren't either that it is very likely that we can't do that once and for all and the likely scenario is we have one step forward then three steps backward. But if we walk in faith consistently, we will eventually make big progress. It is a life long journey rather than a short trip. The first step is to listen to God's calling to your conscious to cut off the "impure" in our life. 

The chapter eight as a whole is the steps that God ordered Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons to do in order to consecrate them as priests. Their roles weren't small matters. They were told to give all these offerings and slaughtered some animals in the ritual. It is hard to understand for a person of modern day to see the necessity of all those rituals. To be honest, we got no time for those things either. Life is full of too many big and little things to do. But back then, they had no TV, Internet or even books to read. Each ritual meant a great deal to them. God emphasized the importance of the roles of priest by having them stay in the congregation tent for seven days until the ordination period was complete. 

Approach the altar, and present your purification offering and burnt offering. Do this first to cover the impurity of your own life so that you will be fit to cover the impurity of all the people. Then present the offering of the people so that the impurity o their lives may be covered. Do exactly as the Eternal has commanded. (Leviticus 9:7)

God placed an important role on the priests by first requiring them their own "impurity". This reminds me of Jesus's story confronting the pharisees. Those people who were supposed to be "impure" themselves had forgotten all about what God had ordered long ago. They might have possessed all the knowledge of the rituals. Yet they forgot the most important thing is to live by example. They occupied the higher seats yet failed to show the people the truth of God. A blind cannot lead other blinds. And worst of all, the blind do not see his own blindness but judges, mock, accuse of other blinds.

Then Aaron raised his hands in the direction of the people and blessed them. After he had completed the sacrifices for the purification offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, he descended from the altar. Moses and Aaron entered the congregation tent. When they returned, they blessed the people, and the Eternal One's glory appeared to all the people. Then flames erupted from the presence of the Eternal One and devoured the burnt offering and all the fat on the altar. At the sight of this, everyone cried out and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:22-24)

I don't know what exactly the orders of the offerings were, as I had been lost in all these instructions of rituals. But when I read this verses, I saw something special from it. Purification offering means going through the process of being purified getting rid of whatever that is not good or wrong in his life. But the first step is always to have that awareness and willingness to step into purification. Then comes the trials and challenges of burnt offerings. A gold must go through fire to be refined. Then comes the last offering of peace. After storms and challenges in life, what you really learn and possess is that peace and love from God. Again I will use that gold metaphor to describe the peace offering. It is like the hot gold being put into cold water to be cool down and finally is refined and ready to be sold or used. 

First comes awareness and willingness, then, trials and challenges and last peace and faith that no one can take away from you.