‘I’m glad I don’t have to worry about doing those anymore.’ Let me guess, if you could even get THROUGH the book of Leviticus that last sentence sums up most of what you learned from reading it. I mean, exempting a few bits here and there of narrative where some died, the book is an eye-lid closing 27 chapters of seemingly worthless, old, Eastern regulations for worship. You may second guess if you still WANT to know the God who would ‘inspire’ such writing!
Well, as seems the normal case, after reading the book over and over, consulting smarter people who can give historical, cultural, and Biblical context, and praying—often in confused frustration—I have come to appreciate and even . . . yes . . . genuinely ENJOY this ridiculous book.
We must first understand that Leviticus is part of a story: it is squished between Exodus—which ends with the glory of God descending on the tent of meeting, showing God’s presence with the people—and is succeeded by Numbers—which has more regulations and laws, some narrative of astounding things and people wildly and frequently complaining… and a huge census. So Leviticus is not a Maverick book sitting alone at the bar of the Bible smoking a cigarette with a half-empty pint in front of it; it is no rogue, but a thread in the fabric of, not only the first 5 books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch), nor the whole Bible, but a glimpse into the character of God Himself.
So we should conclude, then, that God is full of rules and is killer at making us bored? No. Prior to Leviticus God approached people, and not many of them it seems. He CAME to Noah, Abram, Jacob, Joseph, Moses; no mega-churches by this time in the Bible. Culturally at this juncture in history such lack of interaction between the common man and the divine was not abnormal. If you can remember some Egyptian history or maybe the movie Stargate, the ruler of a people either considered himself entirely or in part divine but he was the mouth, the between-man of the normal people and the divine entity. So when God, who created everything, decides to not only dwell among His people, but give direction on how the poor bum who’s always asking for change can worship Him, as well as everyone else in Israel, this would have blown everyone away; this is like Steve jobs saying, ‘But wait, there’s one more thing’ near the end of his keynote speech of new Apple products, when that ridiculously crazy thing comes out; this was beyond tweet worthy info, beyond really our understanding: it was brand new on the Earth and it was historically and culturally and socially and personally new and different and counter. Now the people, the everyman, can GO to God and worship Him.
Along this same thread, Leviticus is rigorous about social equality in worship; as the New Testament (NT) book of James points out, it is easy to say, ‘oh, that guy with lots of money gives more, he must be a better person.’ Leviticus says no; we see that if people are not able to give a bull, they can give a goat, if not that then something less expensive all the way down to some grain. We see this played out as Jesus’ parents in the NT were only able to give 2 birds for an offering—they did not have much money. So not only was worship not exclusive to the rich, but standing with and before God was not for the wealthy, it was for all who joined God. Interestingly enough too God did not order the people to go into debt, asking always for the most lavish of gifts from everyone. He wanted worship not things.
Leviticus also teaches that sin is costly. We find it very hard, but we must understand that for many people—and those who grew up on farms have a leg up here—giving their lamb or bull or any of their animals for sacrifice was almost equivalent to giving up your pet dog or cat. When you went to offer gifts to God, it would be sad and hard; this would be a reminder to the people of Israel that sin not only meant something, it took away life, it caused pain and made you uncomfortable; there is a price to sin, namely death. Making it even more clear—and as my generation would say, ‘real’-- In Leviticus God lays it out that the person who gives will himself participate in the act of worship, which was again, not normal for the time—it was always the priest who would perform the sacrificing. The farmer literally had a hand in worship.
It is easy to read the section where God says, ‘Be holy for I am holy’ as a negative and impossible claim; but again, it was not an impossible hoop to jump through to get to God, rather it is a GRACE that GOD HAS MADE A WAY TO HIMSELF WHERE PREVIOUSLY THERE WAS NO WAY. When He says be holy, we should hear: join in doing what I do, come along WITH me.
Leviticus gives a context for understanding what is going on in the NT. Without Leviticus and other regulations and laws we miss how significant and outlandish many of Jesus’ acts were, from the lady who was hemorrhaging, to Jesus’ interaction with unclean lepers, to, as mentioned already, Jesus’ parents. Without understanding Leviticus, much of the NT is a dark room which we can only get a vague sense of what is present in it.
There is SO much in this book that is admittedly hard to understand and can be boring. But it is the Christian’s book to know: it further substantiates and reveals the character of the Almighty to us. We cannot sell the book short by saying it is outdated and all we can glean is that Christ fulfills this stuff. LEVITICUS IS ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS, THE GOSPEL WHICH HAS BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES: God chooses to love and allows Himself to be worshipped by those who will follow Him and love Him with their all. He makes a way where there is no way, He tumbles the wall of previous impossibilities, so that we may know Him.
Much more can be helpfully said but hopefully this will draw you into curiosity for this great book, and will lead you further into understanding the character and heart of the God of the Bible.
I was greatly helped by John Milgrom’s commentary and Gordon Wenham’s commentary and Mark Dever’s manuscript found in this book, as well as by audio from Jay Sklar; but AS ALWAYS, nothing can trump constantly reading the book of focus and praying for understanding.
With every post I hope that if you have questions, concerns, complaints, caveats, or anything else that starts with a ‘c’ you can feel welcome to pose them.
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