Introduction to Leviticus

Studies in Leviticus

Leviticus is not an easy book to read. One of the first things you will notice as you read the book that there is lots of repetition about things we don‟t do, nor are we expected or required to do them! Sacrifices, clean and unclean food, rituals for childbirth, priests, rituals for leprosy, rituals for death, feasts, rituals for mildew, rituals for offerings, and on and on the list goes.

Between the repetition and the emphasis on the culturally distant, at first glance there doesn't seem to be much there to hold our attention - much less apply to our daily lives. However, there are messages in these 27 chapters that are of great importance to us.

Leviticus in a Nutshell

The theme of Leviticus is “the holiness of God.” The word “holy” is used 57 times, and generally speaking, holy means “sacred,” “separate,” or “set apart.” That may be a little vague, so let‟s look at it this way. Holy is the opposite of common. If we were to apply it to dishes; paper plates, Styrofoam, and plastic utensils would be “common;” and fine china, crystal, and genuine silver utensils would be “sacred,” or “set apart,” or even “holy.” That is the root idea behind “holy.” Unfortunately, holiness is an abstract idea. If you were to ask three different people to describe it, you would most likely get three different answers.

Because of this, in the book of Leviticus, God gives His chosen people a series of object lesson that quantify holiness. In other words, He makes it tangible – it is attainable. So even though God is separate and not common (holy), by following the object lessons of Leviticus, God could be approached and communed with. The distant God could be brought near.

One other thing to remember about Leviticus is that it is very closely connected with Exodus. In Exodus, God chooses, delivers, miraculously provides for, and establishes Israel as a nation. The book ends with the people building a tabernacle to house God‟s glory, and in Ex. 40:34 we read that God filled the tabernacle with His glory, visible proof that God was near and present.

But that is only half the formula because now the sinful, unholy, rebellious people, separated from a holy God, needed access to their God. How could they do that? There were two critical things that had to happen. First of all, they had to be made aware of their sin. They had to know what was acceptable and what was unacceptable. And second, they had to then have a way to deal with that sin. Everything you read in the book of Leviticus has these two issues as their foundation – the knowledge of sin and then its antidote (cf. touching a dead body). We know this is true because of what Paul tells us explicitly in Rom. 3:20 when he says, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” He then elaborates on that in Gal. 3:24 when he says, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [education] to lead us to Christ [antidote], that we may be justified by faith.”

Memory Project: Lev. 18:1-5

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, „I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.‟”

Schematic of the book:

Chapters 1-16: How To Obtain Fellowship With God – Purification
Chs. 1-7: The sacrificial system – “how to draw near to God”
Chs. 8-10: The priestly system – “the mediators between God and man”
Chs. 11-15: The fellowship system – “clean versus unclean”
Ch. 16: The Day of Atonement – “the annual removal of sin”

Chapters 17-25: How To Maintain Fellowship With God – Sanctification
Chs. 17-20: Concerning daily living
Chs. 21-22: Concerning the priesthood
Chs. 23-24: Concerning the feasts
Ch. 25: Concerning the sabbatical and jubilee years

Summary of section #1 – sacrifice and purification culminate in atonement atonement

Summary of section #2 – sanctification culminates in rest

Chapters 26-27: Appendices
Ch. 26: Blessings for obedience and punishments for disobedience
Ch. 27: Guidelines concerning vows

Warnings about Leviticus

The follower of Christ today is faced with a tricky situation when he starts to interpret and apply the book of Leviticus. We acknowledge with Paul in 2 Tim. 3:16 that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.” We also acknowledge with Paul in 1 Cor. 10 that all the things that are recorded for us in the OT “happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction.” But what do we do with all the regulations in Leviticus? Do they apply to us today? Do we have to follow them? If so, why, and if not, why not?

Here is the principle I want you to keep in mind as we go through this book. We can‟t confuse the object lesson with the spiritual reality it represents. Let me say it again. We can‟t confuse the object lesson with the spiritual reality it represents. In the book of Leviticus, the visible and tangible always points toward the invisible and intangible. The physical leaven / yeast that grows and permeates the entire loaf of bread is an object lesson that illustrates the nature of sin (1 Cor. 5 and Gal. 5). Yeast is not intrinsically evil. The meat of the young goat boiled in it‟s mother‟s milk is an object lesson only. There is a bigger spiritual reality that God was drawing their attention to. It‟s not like something happened to the goat meat at the molecular level if it was boiled in it‟s own mother‟s milk that didn‟t happen if it was boiled in some other goat‟s milk.

How do we know that is true? Because of what Jesus said in Mt. 5:17-18. “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.” Circle the words “fulfill” and “accomplish.” “Fulfill” means “to give the complete or true meaning of something.” It means “to provide the true significance of something.” The word “accomplished” means “to come into existence,” and indicates that something was missing, it is still outstanding. What this tells us is that the law in its Old Testament form was incomplete. It was insufficient. It was missing something. The way the author of Hebrews puts it in chapter 8 is that the priesthood and legal system served as “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” Remember, the physical points to the spiritual. He goes on to say in verse 7, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.” That is strong language! And then he ends the chapter in verse 13 by saying, “When He said, „A new covenant,‟ He has made the first obsolete.” The point is that eventually, the object lessons lost their value. They are not for us today.

What I want you to remember as we go through this wonderful book is that if you focus too closely on the particulars, you will miss the big picture. If you look at all the dietary laws and all you see are principle for healthy eating, you have just missed the point. There is something bigger going on. I have a pastor friend who lives in Red Hook, and he was telling me about his friend‟s house on Long Island. Apparently it was on the beach and had an amazing view, and the entire house was built around the great room that had a 7‟ X 11‟ window looking out at the bay. He would bring guests to this window and encourage them to just stand there and soak it in.

Let‟s say that I am the guest and he has just brought me into the great room, and we are standing there in front of the window and there is a gorgeous sunset – I mean the sky is on fire and there is a palette of colors in the sky no human could ever reproduce. And I walk up to the window and say, “Did you use cherry to trim this window out?” He says “yes, but look at that sky!” So I say, “This is incredible woodwork. Did you mill it yourself, or have it custom built?” He says, “I milled it myself, but look at this sunset. Have you ever seen such beautiful colors?” So I say, “I can‟t believe the patina on this wood. How did you get it? Did you use beeswax, or linseed oil?” He says, “It‟s neither – it‟s just matte varnish, but you really need to see this sunset before it is gone.” So I say, “How did you attach it to the wall? I don‟t see any nail holes – did you glue it up?” And he says, “No, I worked really hard to make sure the putty was an exact match.” Wouldn‟t that be sad? Yes, the woodwork is beautiful and intricate, but that is nothing compared to the sunset.

And that is the danger we need to be on the lookout for as we study the book of Leviticus – focusing on the particulars and not the big picture. Do people do this today? Absolutely! In my opinion, this is the weakness of the entire Messianic Jewish movement – a fascination with the Old Testament ritual which Jesus, Paul, and the author of Hebrews all said was deficient. There are women who will not be intimate with their husbands for 40 days after they give birth to a male child, and they won‟t be intimate for 80 days after the birth of a female child – because of the prohibitions in Leviticus. There are people who won‟t eat shrimp because of the prohibition in Leviticus. Are these sinful things? No, but they are illustrative of a deficient understanding of the whole of scripture. We have to be very careful about focusing on the woodwork around the window and missing the beautiful sunset.

Why did God see fit to include Leviticus in our Bible, especially since its focus is on a system of approaching God that is no longer relevant? Three reasons come to mind.

First of all, Leviticus reveals a holy God who can be approached only in the way He prescribes. You cannot come to God on your own terms. I don‟t care how smart you are, or how logical or illogical you think the Bible is, if you want to have a relationship with God, you are going to have to do it His way! That is the sunset we are going to be focusing on.

Secondly, Leviticus beautifully and simply illustrates complex spiritual truths. For instance, when Jesus died on the cross, He was taking care of our sins. Expressed that way, it doesn‟t say a lot. But when we study the scapegoat that was released into an uninhabited wilderness on the day of Atonement – what Jesus did with my sins when He was on the cross suddenly comes alive.

Finally, Leviticus forces us to have a greater appreciation of the New Covenant, enacted at Calvary, that conclusively deals with sin. My love for Jesus and His grace and the sufficiency of His sacrifice is fueled by and in proportion to my awareness of the ponderous, complex, deficient, Mosaic system.