Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / April 28, 2026 - Leviticus 11 & Psalm 90

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April 28, 2026 - Leviticus 11 & Psalm 90 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick summary of Leviticus 11.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 11 details both clean and unclean animals.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can think of that in three primary categories of animals: land animals, uh sky animals, such as birds, of course, and then a sea.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the land, the sky, and the sea, and those animals of which are clean and are free to eat, and those which are unclean and are not free to eat.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is repeated in detail throughout Leviticus 11 and in verse 44.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Leviticus eleven, detailing clean and unclean animals and the laws specifying that.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word, Psalm ninety.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You sweep them away as with a flood, they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: In the morning it flourishes and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: For all our days pass under your wrath, we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: They are soon gone, and we fly away.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Return, O Lord, how long?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Have pity on your servants.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and as for many years as we have seen evil, let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now Leviticus eleven is an interesting chapter, and perhaps you have heard accusations levied against Christians in the past that actually find their footing, or at least the accuser seems to think they find their footing in Leviticus 11.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so the accusation kind of goes something like this Well, if you're truly a Christian that believes the Bible, why are you eating shellfish?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or why are you eating this?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And why are you eating that?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that is rooted here in Leviticus 11, where there is specific instructions given again to a specific nation during a specific time for a specific purpose.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, we do have clean and unclean animals that are listed.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we said in the summary that you can think of those as very, I guess, simply as land, sky, and sea.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And God is giving instructions for what makes them clean and what makes them unclean.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh part of it is the hoof, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Cloven-footed uh hoof, chewing the cud, things like that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's even the more specific ones about pigs, and there's specific animals mentioned that are not to be eaten.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, that's unclean.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: The rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, that is unclean.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, that is unclean, and on and on it goes.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is why are these here?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh it seems somewhat obvious in the New Testament that Jesus himself and Paul reiterates, and even in the book of Acts, there there's so many different touch points and reference points in the New Testament that we are not bound as Christians to these dietary laws.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that seems uh pretty clear, at least to me, in the New Testament.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus himself in Mark 7, he says it's not what goes into someone that defiles them, it's what comes out of them.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in parentheses, it says, uh, and he pronounced all food clean.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think this is something that, of course, was for a specific time to a specific people for a specific purpose.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the question remains, what is that purpose?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God give these specific instructions to Israel about these animals?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it actually is rooted in creation, it's rooted in Genesis 1, 2, and 3.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you notice, I'm gonna read Genesis 1:26.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that the kinds of animals that are referenced in the dominion mandate, as it's often called, it says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion, and listen to what the categories of animals here that you'll hopefully see parallel with in Leviticus 11.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the mandate that was given to mankind to have dominion, to rule, to keep, to cultivate, uh, to subdue.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, in Genesis chapter 3, that is all um corrupted because of Adam and Eve's sin.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's no accident that here in Leviticus 11, the different categories of animals that are connected to the dominion mandate are mentioned in connection to these purity laws, these laws that were to distinguish that which is clean and that which is unclean.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you even just kind of zoom out and think about the that that this is laws specific to food, uh food that's not necessarily uh for sacrifices, though there is some overlap.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is food that is allowable to be consumed or forbidden to be consumed.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Food, of course, in the Bible represents often God's provision, our daily bread, uh, that kind of thought process God is providing.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: But food also is a daily necessity, and it's a daily reminder, I would say, of the reality of the curse from Genesis 3.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So in Leviticus 11, in uh these laws detailing clean and unclean foods, that's a reminder, it's sort of a stinging reminder of the shadow of the curse from Genesis 3 and what humanity has lost because of sin and death entering into the world.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Humanity was intended to have dominion and rule over these creatures, but yet we see here that they can, the very thing that they were to be placed over now can mark them as unclean because of sin and because of rebellion ultimately against the Lord.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people will try to make sense of Leviticus 11 by saying that God intended uh just even for the health of Israel, certain animals, you know, dietitians will talk about how some of these animals aren't, uh especially with the just the primitive um way to prepare food and maybe to store it and to preserve it.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, these animals would have made the nation of Israel sick, and so God was trying to protect them.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would say there's a part of that, perhaps, going on that I think is reasonable and well-founded.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you read in the commentaries and scholarship, you'll you'll see that uh kind of talked about, but that's not the primary purpose of these laws.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It certainly might be one of the byproducts of it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: God can accomplish multiple things uh with a single command.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: He certainly is within his right and ability to do that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say that the primary focus seems to come from verses 44 and 45.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: This reiteration of God is giving these commands so that the nation of Israel as a whole will consecrate themselves, will set themselves apart.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and be holy, for I am holy.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You shall not defile yourselves yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground, for I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So just like food is a daily necessity, this is a daily reminder for the people of Israel to be holy as God is holy, to be reminded that they are set apart, that they are not to uh interact, at least in the sense of adopting the practices of the pagan nations around them.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, they they are to be set apart, they are not to worship false gods, they are not to marry outside of Israel, uh, lest they take on and adopt the pagan gods of uh other countries.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are to be holy as God is holy.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this direct connection, this theological implication for the nation of Israel of these foods that again, I think, are hearkening back to the Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1 and 2.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's also just a stinging reminder, even daily, of Genesis chapter 3, that they're now living on the other side of the curse.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the daily reminder of their need for the Lord for him to provide, of their separation from God, and how easily they can be made unclean, and how really, as a category, they are unclean because of their sin and their ultimate need for the grace of the Lord.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Leviticus uh 11.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, these are not binding for Christians today.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can read uh in the New Testament uh and he Paul talked about that, the book of Acts, Luke talks about that, uh, Jesus himself talks about that, seems pretty clear there.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, it is a helpful thing to think through and to understand what is going on.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Psalm 90, this is attributed to Moses.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It says a prayer of Moses in the superscription, the man of God.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things going on here, but one of the most famous lines in this psalm, perhaps, is the idea of helping us to learn and teaching us, verse 12, to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what an important and timely reminder that that is for us to have that prayer.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: God teach us, uh, teach us to number our days, to understand the brevity of life, that we may get a heart of wisdom.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, as we are numbering our days, we are not being idle.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not causing us to have kind of a defeatist mentality of, well, life is short anyway, so what's the point?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think how Moses ends here in Psalm or in verse 17 should be kind of the cry of our heart.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's just a really good daily prayer for us as a church, uh, for each of us as an individual to pray, Lord, please establish the work of our hands.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let everything we do be done for your glory.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Would you make us effective?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Would you give us the strength?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would you give us the wisdom?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Will you teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to reflect on the character of God, help us to even reflect on the brevity of life and to get busy with the work that God has laid out for us to do, specifically at Compass Bible Church, South Valley, to go and make disciples of all nations and all along the way.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are recognizing that our time on this earth is short.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're praying daily and desperately.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Establish the work of our hands, O Lord.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Establish the work of our hands.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so some really just great nuggets here in Psalm 90 from this prayer of Moses, really good template, as a lot of the Psalms are for our prayers to help us kind of guide our prayers and our thinking as it pertains to the different topics here that Moses addresses.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, Leviticus 11, the purity laws concerning food, uh, were primarily, I would say, a theological point for their being set apart for their pursuit of holiness.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, uh the cleanliness of food and the health associated with that is certainly a part of that, but not the main point of why God gives these commands.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see just the creation language, uh, the reverberations of Genesis 1 through 3 here in Leviticus 11.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the the arrow that's pointing forward to Christ that will ultimately be uh the bread of life, Jesus says, where whoever comes to him will never hunger, and whoever comes to him certainly will be made clean because of the righteousness of Christ that is given to us upon faith in him.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sb.org.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.