Relevant Or Irrelevant

We commence this offering straightway with the three stages of time. 

Waiting Time - For three years you are to see the fruit as unclean and forbidden fruit. You are not to eat any of it. God has given you a waiting time of three years.      

Worshipping Time – The next year, the fourth year, all the fruit from all the trees will be holy. They are all to be used to worship God, an offering of praise to Him. You are not to keep back fruit for any reason. Every single bit of the harvest is to be made holy unto God, a praise offering to God. 

Welcoming Time – In the fifth year, you are welcome to eat and feast on all the fruit. In so doing, having followed the orders of the Lord God, you will not just eat and be nourished and blessed, but it will yield to you its increase. God, I AM, has spoken it.

When I was brought to this Levitical passage and had it laid out for me, as I have offered you, it was certainly interesting, but far removed from me. This is what I mean. It was out there, just a Bible passage informing me of how God dealt with His children at a certain point in time. However, it had absolutely no connection, relevance or meaning for me, in my time. I don’t know what’s happening to you so far, with what you have read and how it speaks to you personally. What I do know however, is that you must have something going on inside of you, whether the Scripture touches you or not.

This passage of Scripture stayed with me for a couple days and it would not let me be at peace about it. Try as I would to put it away and forget it, it kept resurfacing in unmistakably holding grips. This continued until I was led to truth about the Bible, the Word of God, which I now share with you. 

Our Lord had to bring me to the place where Scripture, however I saw it or felt about it, was there for all time and its relevance never becomes obsolete for His children. This I do know also, that many of you, like me, need to be brought to the once and for all, sealing truth about the Scriptures, God’s Spirit-Given Word.

Here are verses to help us in this process.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:  16 – 17. When we are arrested at the word, all, what can we do, but acquiesce? How can we ever hope to fight that powerful word, all? How can we ever hope to alter it in any way, form, or fashion, even temporarily so? All Scripture, includes our Leviticus passage also. Therefore, are we to understand that Leviticus 19:  23 – 25, is not just given to us by God, but it is profitable to you and me, as believers?

What does Peter have to say to us about the Word of God? In his First Epistle, he admonishes and encourages all believers in Jesus, in our attitude to the Word. As newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2: 2 - 3. What an analogy! What a vivid picture! The Scripture, the Bible, the Word of God, is essential for healthy growing. To desire it, to crave it, to clamour for it, as newborn babes are very vocal and serious about their food, is how we ought to be for the Word of God. Our desire for the Word must be passionate and genuine.

As believers in the One True God, we must trust and accept this truth. All Scripture has been given to us in this time and place, for our good. It does us unmistakable good, for it corrects us in our many daily errors; instructs us in God’s righteousness, and works in us God’s Word, to make us all, people of God, complete, fitted and fixed to do His every good work.

Don’t you think that you needed these reminders? I know that I certainly did. I needed it and will always need it. The Word of God is life, strength, joy, comfort and much more.  It also brings sorrow, pain and discomfort, but all to our strengthening and edifying.

Being better informed, we should be more adequately prepared and equipped to delve straight into our unusual text.