Posted by Clark Bates
September 5, 2019
The book of Leviticus. The mere mention of it brings images of a barren desert to the mind of most Christians. It is the book that shall not be named. It is the place “read my Bible in a year” plans go to die. Fewer books cause the amount of struggle than the book of Leviticus. Not because it’s convicting to the reader, or because its deep theology requires contemplation (although both could be true in some cases). No, it causes struggle because it’s…. just….so…. boring.
What is a sheaf offering anyway? Or a wave offering? Why do they have to kill so many animals?
Some Basics
The book of Leviticus is named from the Latin Vulgate meaning “pertaining to the Levites”. In Hebrew it’s called וַיִּקְרָא (vō·kä·rä, “and he called”) based on the first word in the Hebrew text. Various Rabbinic traditions also referred to it as the “law of the priests” or the “law-book of sacrificial offerings”. It is counted as one of the five books of Moses, also known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, and is among the most valuable and oldest books of the Jewish tradition.
Leviticus is essentially a rule book for the Levitical priesthood, but ore than that it is the guidebook for the relationship between the nation of Israel and God. It can be summed up with the repeated phrase, “Be holy, because I (God) am holy”. It’s filled with very specific instructions regarding sacrifices and offerings, lists of unacceptable sins and the punishments that attach to them.
Leviticus is blunt and bloody, and it flies in the face of most modern, Western sensibilities. But, it is the source for the character of the nation that was chosen by God and the manner in which they were to carry themselves as a nation set apart from those around them. As Christians, it is difficult to determine where we stand in relation to this book. One option has been to simply assert that it doesn’t apply to us. That was for them, then and the New Testament is for us, now. Another approach has been to assert that it’s all applicable and its guidelines are for Christians as well. However, even those who affirm this, don’t actually burn witches or sacrifice goats.
The Message of Leviticus
Firstly, Leviticus communicates that God is Holy (20.3;22.32). Because of this holiness mankind cannot enter into His presence. The manner in which the Israelites set up their camp reveals this separation:
Space Person
The Sanctuary Priests onlyThe Camp The Israelite People
Outside the Camp The Temporarily Unclean
The Wilderness Unclean Spirits
This establishment demonstrates how a persons spiritual position relates to their proximity to the Lord. What’s more, the closer a person or thing gets to God, the holier it becomes:
Space Person
The Inner Court LevitesThe Holy Place Priests
The Holy of Holies The High Priest
Understanding this relationship between the people and God is foundational to understanding the rest of the text. The ritual purity laws and cleansing rituals, kept the people aware of their need for holiness. On those days when an Israelite was to enter into the sanctuary, they would need to be even more aware, given the closer proximity to the Lord and the need for ritual holiness.
Also, death is clearly combined with being unclean. Death defiles the man. Even touching a carcass renders the person unclean (11.24-5; 39-40). Contact with a human corpse was worst of all, to the extent that a priest couldn’t contact a corpse unless it was his wife (21.1-4; 10-12).
Holiness coincides with justice. Because God is holy and He demands the people to be holy, then they must require justice (24.20). Retribution must fit the crime, and crimes must be punished. Additionally, God’s holiness is revealed in Leviticus through His love. The one’s who love God are told to “love [their] companion who is like [them]” (19.18). Because of this love, the Israelites are to treat others justly and lovingly (19.15-18).
Because God is holy and the average person is not, a means to be made pure was necessary. Enter the sacrificial system. Sin results in consequences, and nothing made this more evident than the sacrifice. So prevalent was the need for sacrifice that unintentional sins required the life of an animal (4-5). Logically, this resulted with the realization that sin brings death and the only way to forgive this sin was for something else to take the sinner’s place. This is most clearly stated in 17.11,
“For the life of the animal resides in the blood: I have assigned it to you to make expiation on the altar, for your lives, because it is the blood that makes expiation by the life.”
It was not enough to merely follow the ritual, however, as the nation would later be judged for empty ritual practice. It was understood that God searched the heart of the individual and that brought the forgiveness.
So, what do Christians do with this book?
Leviticus and the New Testament
Beyond this, there are the more difficult aspects of this book, most notably the requirement of a sin offering for a woman who has had a child or menstruated, a leper, and even a bodily discharge. Why in the world are natural bodily functions and diseases considered a sin?! We might be tempted to point out that the people of this book were clearly savages or simply ignorant of the way the body worked and this is the result of these requirements. We might simply want to reject the book as a whole, because of this. I would suggest that neither would be correct.
Consider that the sin sacrifice not only applies to everyday bodily functions, but even to UNINTENTIONAL sins! Sacrifice is expected for sins you didn’t even consciously commit!! How is this fair? How I this just? You might even respond that it’s impossible to remain clean and holy under such conditions!!!
And you’d be right. Because that’s the point.
The sacrifice is required because God is holy. It applies to every part of daily life because every part of our humanity is unholy. This is the message of Paul (Rom. 5.12-21; 8.5) and John (1 Jn. 2.2; 3.5). It is why Jesus came to be sin on our behalf (2 Co. 5.21), the just for the unjust (1 Pet. 3.18). He did this, because it is impossible for any human being to keep himself holy or be able to approach God through his or her own efforts. The message of Leviticus is the message of the cross.
Conclusion
But it doesn’t, in so far as the rituals are concerned. Why? Because Jesus was the last sacrifice required, and he stands in the presence of the Father on our behalf eternally (Heb.5.1-10; 8.1-6; 10.19-23). The need for Christians to remain separate from the world as exemplified in the separation of cloths and kinds of cattle (Lev. 19.19) or the need to remain morally pure as seen in sundry passages (19.20-22; 18.6-10) is still true (1 Jn. 2). The punishment for these crimes, particularly those deserving death still stand, but it is no the Christian who is to impose them, but God alone (Rom. 12.19; 13.4). Likewise, death will come to those who continue in sin without taking advantage of the means by which God has provided for forgiveness (Jn. 3.16-20).
Dear Christian, if the book of Leviticus has been a cross you felt you had to bear up to now, I pray that you will leave here seeing it as the cross Christ bore on your behalf.
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