Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / April 17, 2026 - Leviticus 2 & Psalm 84

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April 17, 2026 - Leviticus 2 & Psalm 84 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible reading plan, where 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_01: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today is Friday, April 17th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Leviticus 2.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it, and bring it to Aaron's sons the priest, and he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this at its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves, of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers smeared with oil.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened mixed with oil.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it, it is a grain offering.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion, and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: No grain offerings that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: As an offering of first fruits you may bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: You shall season all your grain offerings with salt.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: With all your offerings you shall offer salt.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you offer a grain offering of firstfruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your first fruits fresh ears, roasted with fire, crushed new grain, and you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: It is a grain offering.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all of its frankincense.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is a food offering to the Lord.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, and whose heart are the highways to Zion, as they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The early rain also covers it with pools.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: They go from strength to strength, each one appears before God in Zion.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, O God of Jacob, behold our shield, O God, look on the face of your anointed, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord God is a son and shield.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord bestows favor and honor.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Leviticus two details some of the specifics for the laws concerning grain offerings.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to zoom out for just a second and kind of give you a little bit of a lay of the land for the five primary offerings in the book of Leviticus.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we already read of the first in chapter one.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: These five primary offerings are in Leviticus one through seven.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: So just keep that in mind as we're reading these chapters, we're getting some context for what these offerings are to be and some of the specific stipulations that God intends for them.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: But the five offerings, if you obviously have the five fingers on your hand, we have the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, the peace offerings, the sin offerings, and then the guilt offerings.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, not all of these are atonement offerings.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're not all specific to seek, they're not all for the purpose of going there for forgiveness.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll put it that way, just to keep it simple.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them, of course, are guilt offering, sin offering.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: But even within those two offerings, we're going to see that the guilt offering is a much more horizontal and vertical.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: But a guilt offering was you being reconciled to another brother or sister, and then making an offering to be reconciled to the Lord.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sin offering is sort of what Leviticus calls the unintentional sins that you did commit, but maybe weren't in high-handed rebellion.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: The burnt offerings, the first of the five, is more of kind of a more general offering where you're just seeking to draw and approach God and you're recognizing your just sinful condition in general.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the grain offerings that we're reading about today in chapter two have a variety of different purposes.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is for the provision of the priest specifically.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Their work is in service within the tabernacle and service to the Lord.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so they are not, they're not blacksmith, they're not uh shepherds, they are fully dedicated and devoted to serving the Lord in the context of the tabernacle.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So the grain offering was a free will offering.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, it was not necessarily commanded every single time, uh, but a free will offering for those who have generous hearts to provide for the priests, Aaron and his sons, so that they could continue in the work of the tabernacle.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of the reasons that we see the grain offering.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: We also see it kind of as an offering of thanksgiving, uh, where the people of Israel are reflecting specifically on the Exodus events and just the faithfulness of God in general, and they're offering a grain offering as uh just a way of saying thank you.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this is really connected to the feast of unleavened bread, uh, which was to be observed every year.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you remember, that was established basically kind of commemorating the quick flight of the Israelites out of Egypt.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was so quick they didn't even have time to put leaven in their bread.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so they established, God established the feast of unleavened bread.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so this sacrifice is kind of commemorating that.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is a free will offering.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Part of it again is to be burned, part of it is to uh be just in provision for Aaron and the priest and their service within the tabernacle.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we see in this chapter a variety of ways that this grain offering could be brought in a in a pan, it could be baked, it could be in in powder or just like raw form, and it's uh mixed and fused with oil and and frankincense.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that we think of as uh we might be uh considering how how we're approaching the Lord, how we're um bringing our offerings on on Sunday, we want to do it always with with a heart posture that is uh seeking to please the Lord, not not out of like obligation or uh any kind of grumbling or complaining or or kind of uh attitude like that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we would love um we love to align with the Lord and and please him by doing so with with joy overflowing out of our hearts.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and one thing this is sort of tangentially connected here to Leviticus chapter two, but one thing that I was just kind of reflecting on was the Lord's provision for his servants specifically.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: The priests were in just complete devotion to the Lord, and again, they they weren't doing other jobs.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there was no such thing as a bivocational priest.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Their responsibility was full devotion to the tabernacle, to uh making the sacrifices and presenting them on behalf of the people of Israel.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so they relied fully on the Lord to provide uh for what they needed.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we see the grain offering being one of the means that God uses to take care of his servants.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was just encouraged by that and hopefully just to encourage you, if you're listening, to uh to be encouraged that God provides for those uh who are seeking to serve him, those who are his children.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, that takes on many forms and that looks uh in many different ways in a variety of different contexts, um, but just that sense of God is providing for his people, he's providing for his priests, and they're not having to go out there and kind of make things happen for themselves.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: God is taking care of what they need so that they can be freed up to serve him.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so just a great encouragement that God, down to the detail, um, is providing and giving even these very explicit, specific instructions uh for these grain offerings, these sort of free will offerings that are to be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that's something that you're gonna see uh just repeated throughout all of these offerings, even in chapter one, the burnt offering was a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's repeated uh several times, and we see that same kind of phrase repeated in chapter two.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it says in verse three, but the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons, that's the provision.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings, and right before that it says uh a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: So this whole idea is that God is seeking these sacrifices as a way for him to be honored, for him to be glorified, and in their obedience and their submission in these offerings, doing them the way that God prescribed, uh, that's a pleasing aroma in the sight of the Lord.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's uh in everything that we do as a church, and hopefully everything that we do as individuals in our lives should be to please the Lord.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: It should be a pleasing aroma.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, as Paul says in Romans 12, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we want our lives holistically in everything that we do, the way that we spend our time, money, resources, all of that to be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we please him by certainly worshiping him, obeying him, uh, and just through the work of the Spirit and the Word becoming greater conformed to the image of His Son.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot going on here in Leviticus, but remember those five primary offerings that we're reading about in chapters one through seven.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get to more detail on those as we go, but that'll kind of help orient us as we continue through Leviticus.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hey PJ, you know what I was thinking about?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about the the imagery of the scene here, that these aromas that are pleasing to the Lord.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as we we shift our eyes to Psalm 84, I'm trying to uh imagine myself as an Israelite longing for home.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: This this psalm is likely written uh away from home in exile, and the psalmist is is looking back, reflecting back on the worship, on the sights, on the sounds, on the smells, even if you if you could put yourself in their sandals of what the courts of the Lord were all about, and that is worship and honor and reverence to Yahweh.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we look at our psalm today, and verse number one, it says, How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, verse two, my soul longs, yes, feints for the courts of the Lord, speaking to the outer uh area that people will be bringing these offerings to and handing over to uh to the priests.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: It continues to say, My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's this attitude of uh reflection, there's this mindset of of being there in one's mind, reflecting back and longing for a place that is bringing God worship.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a great encouragement to me as we look at Psalm 84 and making worship to God our singular focus.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like how often, how often do we long for that favorite hobby, that thing that we get to do next, or that next.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's some golfers in our church.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: There is some golf.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's some some hunters, some anglers, some some crafty people, some musicians.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have some artisans, crafty as in uh craftsmen and women.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, not crafty in a negative sense, not like the serpent being more crafty than any other creature.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Crafty as in arts and crafts, and we have some people that have a specific skill set that is just so fun and enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing that people can make things that I can't.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't make cool things.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but how to your point, you know, how focused and singular are we in our worship?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and could we say, along with uh Korra, the sons of Korra, here in verse one, how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Could we say honestly that our soul longs, yes, even faints, for the courts of the Lord?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I love what they say, the sons of Korah in verse 10, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: That remembers that reminds me of uh a song that I used to sing growing up.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's based off of this verse.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: But a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: I would rather be a doorkeeper.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather stand there and just open and close and do nothing else in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what a challenge that that is because I I think even as the as the church, as Christians, um, I think often we are too comfortable dwelling in in quote unquote tents of wickedness.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're too comfortable with our own sin.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're too comfortable with engaging in the things of the world.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think we need to have this perspective.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather be the lowliest uh person, the lowliest uh position uh in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this reminds me of Psalm 1, right?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who walk not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: But our delight, hopefully, should be in the law of the Lord and on God's law.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: We should meditate day and night and be like a tree that's planted by rivers of water.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm encouraged by Psalm 84.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I like what you were saying, Tyler, of just having kind of a singular, undivided devotion in our worship of the Lord.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's so worthy of that.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And don't you just love the imagery further on verses three and four?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Considering the animals, the birds of the air that would that would have the privilege of making a nest near the near the courts of the Lord, the sparrow finds a home there, the swallow, a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: These aren't birds to be sacrificed, but these are birds that are that are just nearby that might be waking up in the morning singing songs of of praise, maybe to the Lord, and uh just this the imagery that that the sons of Korah are are considering as they're uh writing this this worship song uh for the Lord.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the the psalm goes on to continue.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's this this pilgrimage, there's this, there's this uh commute, if you will, or a trek or uh a journey to be had where there's a dry place and there's there's desolation.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the the psalm here is saying God is going to make these places as you rest in his strength, as you rejoice and be refreshed in him, even the hard times, even the valley is going to be a place of springs.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: The early rain in verse six, early rain also covers this place, this dry desert place with pools.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: They go from strength to strength in verse seven.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Each one appears before God and Zion, and that's an encouragement for me.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be times of challenge in my future.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be times where I'm going to be feeling dry on the inside.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe if we're gonna bring this imagery into our own our own lives, there's gonna be difficulty, but being fixed and steadfast where God would have us and dependence in Him, relying on the strength that he provides, there is a refreshment to be had there.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we can lift our prayers to the Lord of hosts, the the God that commands the the armies of heaven, uh the commander of heaven.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hear my prayer.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, oh God of Jacob, hear me out.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I just want to be near you.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I would I want to rejoice in you, and it's better to be near you, it's better to be in your courts than anywhere else, than anywhere else.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was just snowing, snowing outside the window recently, and to be a dorman, like you're saying, just to be outside in the weather, in the elements.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what what the environment's like, I don't need shelter.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just need to be where God is.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be where where He is.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then even have this perspective again that one day with the Lord, being in His courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I just I just hope and pray that uh as a church, our delight is in the Lord, that our souls would long, yes, even faint, for the courts of the Lord, just to be with the Lord, especially even as we talked about on Sunday, this future salvation that he promises, where he'll wipe away every tear from our eyes, and just just long for that day and say, I'd rather be a doorkeeper because of what God will provide, because he is a son and shield.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord bestows favor and honor.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: No good thing does he up does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's verse 11 of Psalm 84.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope we can all grow and just are delighting in the Lord, pursuing him, desiring to be in his presence, and ultimately just longing for our future salvation.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.