Many people that begin a Bible Reading Program starting with Genesis do pretty well through Genesis and Exodus but just can’t make it through Leviticus and quit. Then the next year or two they will try again and once again end up quitting with Leviticus. The Bible Project summary video devotional introduction to Leviticus is a big help in understanding this difficult book. If you’re not using the YouVersion app to access it, you can watch here.
A large part of Leviticus deals with subjects that just don’t seem important to us today. There are all these rules for sacrifices that are not applicable to us because Jesus has fulfilled them. There are festivals described in detail that we as Christians don’t observe. We even have a different calendar system than was used by the Israelites. There months were controlled by the cycle of the moon. The first day of each month began with the New Moon. The first month of their religious calendar year occurs in our March-April time frame. This all seems so confusing and irrelevant to us. There are these strange laws about what animals could be used for sacrifice and for food. They were referred to as clean and unclean. These food laws were also done away with in the New Testament, Mark 7:19 reads, “For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean,).[1] Again we wonder about the relevancy of this book for us. There were many things that would cause a person to become unclean and require a certain sacrifice to be made or a particular ritual to be followed to restore them to fellowship with God. Strange skin diseases are mentioned that required a priest to examine and diagnose as clean or unclean. The person that was unclean would then have to follow specific steps to become clean. Certain skin issues even required the afflicted person to be quarantined. Women giving birth to a baby would be unclean for twice as long if they gave birth to a female compared to a male. These ‘laws’ seem so foreign to us that we often fail to see any application of these passages to our lives at all and yet we read in 2 Tim. 3:16 that all Scripture is profitable. One CSB reference Bible has 173 cross-references in the New Testament pointing back to the book of Leviticus. Our understanding of what is taking place in the New Testament is informed by what we read in Leviticus.
In the Holman Concise Bible Commentary we read, “The overall burden of the Book of Leviticus was to communicate the awesome holiness of Israel’s God and to outline the means by which the people could have access to Him.”[2] Psalm 15:1 asks the question, “Lord, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?1 Morales comments;
The answer will involve sacrifice and obedience, purification and sanctification—both within the transforming Presence of YHWH, who alone is the efficient cause of reconciliation and holiness. As such, Leviticus is about reconciliation between God and humanity through the (temporary and symbolic) means of the tabernacle cultus.[3]
Let’s remain faithful to our reading of the book of Leviticus as we discuss what we learn each day.
[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Merrill, Eugene H. 1998. “The Pentateuch.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 37. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Morales, L. Michael. 2015. Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus. Edited by D. A. Carson. Vol. 37, 110. New Studies in Biblical Theology. England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press.
