The book of Leviticus is the third book of the Bible and it's set right after
the exodus of the Israelites from their slavery when God brought them to the
foot of Mount Sinai and invited Israel into a covenant relationship. Now they
had quickly rebelled and broken the covenant. And God had wanted for his glorious
presence to come and live right in the midst of Israel in the form of this
Tabernacle, but Israel's sin has damaged the relationship. So, at the end of the
previous book, Exodus, Moses as Israel's representative could not even enter
God's presence in the tent. The Book of Leviticus opens by reminding us of this
fundamental problem. It says the Lord called to Moses from the tent. So the
question is, "How can Israel in their sin and selfishness be reconciled to this
holy God?" That's what this book is all about--how God is graciously providing a
way for sinful, corrupt people to live in his holy presence. Now let's pause for a
second and explore this really important idea that God is holy. It's
fundamental to understanding this book. The word holy means simply to be set
apart or unique. And in the Bible, God is set apart from all other things because
of his unique role as the Creator of all, as the author of life itself. And so if
God is holy, then the space around God is also holy. It's full of his goodness and
his life and purity and justice. So if Israel, who is unjust and sinful, wants
to live in God's holy presence, they too need to become holy. Their sin has to
be dealt with. Thus, book of Leviticus. Now the book has a really amazing
symmetrical design. It explores the three main ways that God helps Israel to live
in his presence. The outer sections are descriptions of the rituals Israel was
to practice in God's holy presence. The next intersections focus on the role of
Israel's priests as mediators between God and Israel and inside of that are
two matching sections that focus on Israel's purity. And then right here at
the center of the book there's a key ritual, the Day of Atonement, that brings
the whole book together. The book concludes with a short section where
Moses calls on Israel to be faithful to this covenant.
Let's dive into the book. The first section explores the five main types of
ritual sacrifices that Israel was to perform. Two of these were ways that, in
Israel, I could say "thank you" to God by offering back to God the symbolic tokens
of what God has first forgiven them. Three other sacrifices were different ways of
saying sorry to God. So here in Israel, I would offer up the lifeblood of an
animal while confessing that their sin has created more evil and death in God's
good world. But instead of destroying this person, God of course wants to
forgive them. And so this animal symbolically dies in their place and atones,
which means it covers for their sin. And so through these rituals the
Israelites were constantly being reminded of God's grace but also of his
justice and the seriousness of their evil and its consequences. The second set
of rituals lays out the seven annual feasts of Israel. And each of these retold
a different part of the story about how God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt
and brought them through the wilderness on their way to the promised land. And by
celebrating these feasts regularly, Israel would remember who they were and
who God was to them. Now the sections about Israel's priests: you have Aaron
and his sons first ordained to enter into God's presence on behalf of Israel
and then in this matching section we find the qualifications for being a
priest. The priests were called to the highest level of moral integrity and
ritual holiness because they represented the people before God but then also
represented God to the people. Now we find out why the priests' holiness matter
so much. Back here in this first section, right after the family of Aaron was
ordained, two of his sons waltz right into God's presence and flagrantly
violate the rules. And so they are consumed by God's holiness on the spot.
It's a haunting reminder of the paradox of living in God's holy presence because
it's pure goodness, but it becomes dangerous to those who rebell and
insult God's holiness. And so it's important that Israel's priests become
holy and also that all of the people of Israel become
holy, which is what the next intersections are all about.
Chapters 11 through 15 are about the ritual purity required of all the
Israelites and chapters 18-20 are about the moral
purity of the people. Here's what's underneath all of this purity and
impurity language. Because God is holy, and he's set apart, the Israelites need to
be in a state of holiness themselves. When they enter into his presence, this
was called being clean or pure. God's presence was off limits to anybody who
was not in a holy state. And this was called being unclean or impure. Now in
Israel I could become impure in just a few ways: by contact with reproductive
body fluids, by having a skin disease, by touching mold or fungus, or by touching a
dead body. Now for the Israelites, all of these were associated with mortality,
with the loss of life. Which gets us to the core symbol of all these ideas. You
become impure when you're contaminated by touching death, so to speak. And death
is the opposite of God's holiness because God 's essence is life. Now this is
really key: simply being impure was not sinful or wrong. Touching these kinds of
things was a normal part of everyday life and impurity was a temporary state.
It just lasted a week or two and then it's over. What was wrong or sinful was to
waltz into God's presence carrying these symbols of death and impurity on my body.
Don't do that. Now the last way of becoming impure was by eating certain
animals. And the kosher food laws are found right here in this section. Now
there have been lots of theories about why certain animals were considered
impure and off-limits. To promote hygiene or to avoid cultural taboos--the text
just isn't explicit. But the basic point of all of these chapters is really clear.
Altogether these work as an elaborate set of cultural symbols that remind
Israel that God's holiness was to effect all areas of their lives.
This corresponding section over here is about Israel's moral purity. The
Israelites were called to live differently than the Canaanites.
They were to care for the poor instead of overlooking them. They were to
have a high level of sexual integrity, and they were to promote justice
throughout their entire land. Now, here at the center of the book we find a long
description of one of Israel's annual feasts, the Day of Atonement. Odds are that
not every Israelite's sin and rebellion would be covered through the individual
sacrifices and so once a year the high priest would take two goats. One of these
would become a purification offering and atone for the sins of the people and the
other was called the scapegoat. The priest would confess the sins of
Israel and symbolically place them on this goat and then it would be cast out
into the wilderness. Again, a very powerful image of God's desire to remove
sin and its consequences from his people so that God can live with them in peace.
The book concludes with Moses calling Israel to be faithful to all of the
terms of the covenant and he describes the blessings of peace and abundance
that will result if Israel obeys all of these laws. He also warns them that if
they are unfaithful and dishonor God's holiness, it will result in disaster and
ultimately exile from the land promised Abraham. Now if you want to see how
Leviticus fits into the big storyline, it's helpful to look at the first
sentence of the next book of the Bible, Numbers. It begins, "The Lord spoke to
Moses 'in' the tent," so we can see that Moses is now able to enter God's
presence on behalf of Israel. The Book of Leviticus, it worked! So, despite
Israel's failure, God has provided a way for their sin to be covered so that God
can live with sinful people in peace. And that's what the book of Leviticus is all
about.