Thoughts On Leviticus.

I hope that y'all are doing well! I recently wrote a blog post for a friend of mine and so I thought that I would share it with you. It's my thoughts on the book of Leviticus, which I always find myself teaching this time of the year.

Thoughts On Leviticus.

For the past 3 years I have had the pleasure of teaching Leviticus at the Emmaus School of Biblical Studies, and that book has become one of my favorites to teach. I know what you may be thinking … Leviticus … seriously? But that’s the reason why I love it so much. I love it because it gets such a bad rap within our Christian communities because you actually have to do some work to get something out of it. It’s common for Leviticus to be the graveyard for those who aspire to read the Bible in a year. This is why I love how our students have to take a week to really get into, because it forces them to see God’s character within the laws given.

The thing that so many people miss in Leviticus and within the Law in general is God’s character. This might be a shock to some, but God giving the Law to the Israelites was an act of mercy and grace. The Law was given to the Israelites so that they may know this God who rescued them from Egypt (Lev 18:1-5). The pagan gods and pagan worship of Egypt surrounded the Israelites for 400 years, so this was probably how they would have naturally tried to worship the True Creator God. The mindset that is common among all pagan worship is “what is this god thinking?”

The book of Leviticus is the answer to this question for the Israelites. This is God, through his grace, mercy and love, showing the whole nation of Israel – this is how they are to please Me, this is how you are to worship Me, this is how you are to live in relationship with Me – And he does this so that they do not have to be in that state of worry and uncertainty.

Leviticus along with Exodus, Number and Deuteronomy are setting up the religious, social and political structure for a people group that is becoming a nation. They speak into the character of God. The book of Leviticus teaches the truth that God is Holy and the Israelites in their sin are not; because of this they need to maintain the purity of the camp because God’s Holiness cannot tolerate or be in the presence of sin (Lev 11:44-45). This is where the sacrifices come in. The sacrifices were God’s way of providing atonement for the sins of the Israelites (13 times in Lev 1-7) so that they may be in his presences. They were something that were something that God used to show the Israelites that their sin is a real problem and needs to be taken care of. One important thing to remember is that God is in control of this whole system and He is the one who made them clean. Seven times within Leviticus God makes the statement that “I sanctify you.”(Lev 20:8) It wasn’t the sacrifices, but God alone that sanctified the Israelites. The real power and transaction to sanctify and atone for sins lies with God … It has always been with God.

The author of Hebrews speaks about Leviticus and the Law as “a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1). The beautiful thing about Leviticus is that it gives us an amazing picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Leviticus shows us that blood had to be spilled in order for the Israelite to gain atonement because the life is in the blood (Lev 17:11). Jesus spilled real blood on the cross to atone for our sins because that is what was required. And unlike the priests offering sacrifices day after day He only had to do it once and then when He was finished He went and sat at the right hand of God.

There is so much that we can miss about Jesus if we don’t study our Old Testament. I believe that you will gain a greater appreciation for Jesus if you look at the OT in light of the cross.