The book of Leviticus. We know you’ve been avoiding it cause it’s weird. So let’s fix that.
Now remember the story of the Bible began with humans in God’s presence,
but they were banished because of their rebellion.
However, God wants to be in relationship with us, so
He chooses one family that he will use to restore the world back into His presence.
Tim: And so God’s presence comes to dwell in a tent right in the middle of Israel…
Jon … and that’s great!
But it creates a problem: because it’s so intense that Moses can’t go in
and other priests who enter inappropriately… they die.
Well, wait, if God’s presence is good, how is it all of a sudden dangerous for people?
So think of it this way: God’s presence is like the sun -
it’s pure power and goodness.
And when something mortal and corruptible gets close to such pure power it’s destroyed.
And so the word “holiness” is used in Leviticus to describe God’s pure and powerful presence,
which like the sun is both good and dangerous.
So the point of Leviticus is to show how corrupt Israelites can live near God’s goodness
without being destroyed.
Now in the book there are three ways for how this is all going to work out
and these are gonna seem strange to you but just hang in there with us.
Jon: The first one is rituals,
the second is this idea of the priesthood,
and the third is a bunch of purity laws.
Tim: Now, the book is broken up into seven sections
each solution is explored in two sections of the book.
The Rituals are here. The Priests are here. And the Purity Laws go here.
Jon: Now the first solution, rituals, involves a lot of animal sacrifices.
And so Leviticus begins with detailed instructions for how to make these sacrifices.
Some are ways of saying “Thank You” to God
and others are simply ways of saying “I’m Sorry.”
Tim: And here at the end of the book there are some more rituals and these are about observing sacred days and festivals;
they are all celebrations that retell some part of the story of how God rescued Israel
and set them apart from the nations.
Jon: The second solution to the holiness problem has to do with priests.
You see, being directly in God’s presence is really dangerous,
so He appoints priests as special representatives who can go into His presence on behalf of others.
Tim: So in this section we have a story about how the priests are ordained into the priesthood.
And then this other section explains this set of higher standards the priests have to live by,
because they work so closely to God’s presence.
Jon: The third solution in this book is all about Purity Laws,
and this is by far the hardest thing to understand for example in this section
we’re really concerned with knowing whether you’re “clean” or “unclean”.
Tim: Or another way of saying that is being “pure” and “impure”.
Here’s what we need to know to understand this:
when you’re in a pure state you can be near God’s presence,
when you’re in an impure state you can’t.
And so it was really important for Israelites to know what state they’re in at any given moment.
Jon: So the first thing we have is a list of pure and impure animals.
Tim: Yah, this list of animals is divided up by where they live:
so, on the land
in the sea, in the air.
And the text is just not clear about why certain animals are impure
or why touching or eating them makes you impure.
What is clear, however, is that avoiding these creatures will set Israel apart,
and it will remind them that God’s own holiness should affect every part of their lives
including what they eat.
Jon: After the food laws we get a lot of random rules
about things like skin disease, touching dead bodies, what to do with bodily fluids…
Tim: …But they’re not random.
All of these are things that the Israelite’s associated with life and death,
which are sacred things because God is the author of life.
Jon: OK. But simply coming in contact with these things makes you impure?
Tim: They do, but we have to keep in mind that it’s not wrong or sinful to be ritually impure
- you just wait a few days, take a bath, offer a sacrifice, and you’re pure again.
What is inappropriate is entering into God’s presence when you’re in an impure state.
Jon: Now there’s more purity laws over here in this section.
Tim: Yah, these focus on Israel’s moral behavior.
So these are laws about social justice,
healthy relationships, having sexual integrity.
Living by these laws will make Israel into a morally pure people
who can live near God’s presence.
Jon: Those are the three solutions.
Now you’ve probably noticed that they surround the very center of this book,
and it’s here that we find a really important ritual called The Day of Atonement.
Tim: Yah, so Israel’s a big tribe now,
and odds are there’s a lot of sin happening that goes unnoticed that people are not deal with.
And so one time a year the priests would take two goats,
and one of those goats is killed
and its blood is carried right into God’s presence
where it symbolically covers, or atones for, Israel’s sin.
Jon: Yah, that’s kinda weird...
Tim: Well, the meaning of this sacrifice is explained in the next chapter
where God says that the blood of a creature is its life,
and so the goat’s life is offered as a substitute
- it’s receiving God’s punishment for Israel’s sin so that the people don’t have to.
Jon: That leaves the second goat.
Tim: Yeah, the priest puts his hands on it,
and then he confesses all the sins of Israel -
it’s like he’s placing the sins on the goat.
And then that goat gets cast out forever into the wilderness.
It’s called The Scapegoat.
Jon: Yeah, I’ve heard that word before.
Tim: Yeah, it’s this very powerful image of how God is graciously removing Israel’s sin.
Jon: But lets be honest, sacrifices in general it seem so barbaric.
Tim: Well, you have to remember that in the ancient world
sacrifices were the main way of buying favor from the gods.
But the problem was that those same gods they’re unpredictable,
they’re fickle, you never know if they’re gonna ignore you,
or are they going to turn on you.
So it’s in this cultural setting that we see Israel’s God as totally different.
He does get angry about human corruption but it is never arbitrary.
And He loves people,
so He provides this clear way for Israel to know with confidence that they are forgiven,
and that despite their corruption they are safe to live near His presence.
And so that makes the book of Leviticus actually
a revolutionary statement in its day.
Jon: So that’s Leviticus.
But Israel is still at Mt. Sinai in the middle of the wilderness,
they need a place to live.
T: Yes, the land God promised to Abraham,
and so the journey to that land is what the next book of the Bible is all about.