We’re starting on the scroll/book of Leviticus this week and let’s be honest it can be daunting and quite strange. We’ll start off with chapter 1. For now, please watch the video above and read the section below provided by the BibleProject.
If you’ve ever started reading Leviticus, you know how challenging it can be to interpret. The tedious repetition, strange laws, and ancient format often leave modern readers scratching their heads in confusion or zoning out in boredom. To heighten our focus and engagement, it helps to understand the purpose of this biblical literature. So what is Leviticus all about?
First, let’s get some context and see the significance of Levititcus’ placement in the Torah (i.e. first five books of the Bible). At the end of the Exodus scroll, Moses is unable to enter the tabernacle, the holy tent where humans can be in God’s presence. But the Numbers scroll begins with “God spoke to Moses in the tent.” What is happening here? How did Moses, the representative of Israel, get from outside the tent to inside? The scroll of Leviticus answers this question!
Placed right in between Exodus and Numbers, Leviticus acts as a bridge, highlighting the need for restoration of the relationship between God and humans. This scroll is not just a long list of laws and rituals—Leviticus is a story about God’s desire to repair his relationship with Israel, so they can live with him in a restored holy space and rest with him as reformed people who represent his character to all the nations.
Remember the garden of Eden—the sacred place where God and humans met and flourished together? When humans decided to ignore God’s instructions and live by their own understanding, they became tainted with death and could no longer occupy the sacred space. But God wants to be close to humans, so he gives Moses instructions to build the tabernacle—an Eden-like space full of cherubim, gold, and paradise-like decor—to invite people back into a holy space with him.
But when the people rebelled and ignored Yahweh’s instructions, Moses, their representative, was unable to enter the holy tent of meeting. So what now? How will the people access God’s presence?
In the opening chapters of Leviticus, Yahweh offers forgiveness, setting up a way for humans to atone, or cover for, the corruption that keeps them outside God’s presence. God calls out to Moses from inside the tent (Lev. 1:1) and gives the law—a specific way of living, thinking, and trusting—to repair the rift in the relationship. Yahweh also outlines a system of sacrifice and atonement so that humans can once again enter into God’s presence.
In Leviticus, we see Yahweh making a way for his people to return to him, despite their tendency to choose corruption and human wisdom over the ways of Yahweh. This first movement also develops a pattern that we will see throughout the biblical story—the pattern of sacrifice and atonement. Let’s take a closer look.
We get it—the sacrificial system outlined in Leviticus can seem strange to us in our modern context. Animal sacrifice? Really? But there’s a lot to learn in this first movement.
When the people listen to God and complete the sacrifices as he instructs, God allows the death of those animals to cover over, or atone for, the death that would otherwise be experienced by humans. And the nature of these sacrifices allows people to see, taste, and smell the devastating consequences of the harm we cause one another—Yahweh wants people to understand what damaged relationships cost. But he also wants the people to experience the relief of forgiveness.
When the people offer sacrifices, God makes a clean space free from death and corruption—a space where God and humans can be together. This healing of relationships is what the first movement of Leviticus is all about. And the story points forward to Jesus, a first-century Jew who would be called the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
We invite you to download the BibleProject app, so you can read the first movement of the Leviticus scroll with us. Together we’ll trace the pattern of sacrifice and atonement, zooming into key phrases like “make atonement,” “soothing aroma,” “sacrifice,” and “offering.”
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