Considering Leviticus

Another morning comes. I sit on the couch and open my Bible. Let’s see, what to read. “Okay, I could read Genesis. Or Exodus. Leviticus? No way. That book has nothing to do with me.” So I skip over it and go to the New Testament.

But wait.

Leviticus has everything to do with me. No, I’m not Jewish. So before you skip to the next post, let me have a few minutes of your attention to explain some *really* important things.

Recently, I read (and am still reading) through Leviticus as part of a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. As I approached it, dread filled my heart. (Wow, that was poetic.) Anyway, I didn’t want to read it. Seriously, what do you get out of learning about cleansing rituals?! Yeah, that was my mindset when I was towards the end of Exodus. And I learned some very important things that changed my feelings towards this holy book.

All my life, I’ve known that “All the books of the Bible are equally important.” But silently I added, “Except, the New Testament is better than the Old Testament, and Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy don’t really count for being important.”
Uh oh. *cringes* Big mistake there.

And I’ve been learning very important lessons from Leviticus that I wanted to share so y’all wouldn’t skip over it like I used to. Okay. Here goes.

1) Sometimes, God might have seemed picky or arrogant when He required specific things from His people. But! We cannot assume that for a few reasons.
a) He is God. Arrogance only comes from someone who puts themself in a higher position than they actually deserve. However, there is no higher position than God, and He deserves everything He is. He is “I AM”!
b) Because God is God, he knew exactly what the consequences for disobeying him would be. For example, when He commanded certain cleansing after touching dead things or refraining from eating pigs and other animals, it was to prevent the spread of disease and germs that the Israelites knew nothing about. Wow, isn’t God smart?! (The answer to that would be yes, of course.)

2) When the Bible talks about spotless animals without blemish for sin offerings, this foreshadows to Jesus, our spotless and blemish-less sin offering. Nobody else or any animal could forgive every single sin in the entire world.

3) While the Israelites were constantly making offerings to forgive their sin, Jesus’ perfect offering was a one-time-forgives-all kind of deal. Sweet!

4) Israel lived as a -slave to sin- and the law–we now live as children of God, living in grace! Thank you God!
Let me restate this. WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD. LIVING IN GRACE. NOT SLAVES TO SIN. AMAZING, RIGHT?!

5) Obedience to God above all else is the most important. He created the world, and obviously knows best. Yes, our naïvety gets the best of us many times and we live life thinking that we are in control and really know what’s best for ourselves…stupid mistakes over and over and over. I’m guilty.

See what I mean? This has everything to do with us! This book foreshadows the freedom from sin and the law that was to come. Because Leviticus has everything to do with Jesus and I live only because of Jesus, this has everything to do with me.

So the next time you routinely gloss over Leviticus, think again. Don’t think of it as just a bunch of boring rules and regulations; remember that it is the holy and inspired Word of God; an unfolding revelation, and a foreshadowing of the awaited Messiah for every person.

*aj