“Help. I don’t understand Leviticus.” As a pastor, I think this is one of the most frequent questions I receive. Leviticus is a notably strange book, full of bloody rituals, odd laws, and distinctions between clean and unclean, holy and unholy. Reading Leviticus today can feel like walking through a wardrobe to an entirely different world.
What do we need to know to read Leviticus well as Christians? Let me offer four key points to remember.
1. Leviticus Resolves a Crisis
Why is Leviticus in the Bible? To answer that, we first need to know why Leviticus is in the Torah.
Leviticus is the bridge between Exodus and Numbers. When Exodus ends, God’s glory fills the tent of meeting; however, “Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod 40:35). God’s presence keeps Moses outside. God tabernacles among his people, but no one, not even Moses, can go into the tent. No one can dwell with God. The book of Numbers starts with God speaking to Moses inside the tent. Leviticus tells us how God brings him in.
Leviticus resolves the crisis of separation and brings God’s people into communion with him. This realization transformed reading Leviticus for me. It went from being a collection of non-applicable laws to a sweet word of hope. God makes his dwelling place a meeting place. The function of the priesthood, the sacrifices, the cleanliness laws, the holiness laws, and the means of atonement is for God’s people to bask in God’s presence.
It won’t solve all the strangeness of the book, but understanding the problem Leviticus answers (who can dwell with God?) puts us on the pathway to reading Leviticus well.
2. Leviticus Headlines Grace
Most Christians familiar with Leviticus, if forced to recite a verse, will go to Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus, it seems, comes to us as a manual for maintaining holiness, and the best part of the book is that, because of Jesus, we don’t have to do any of these rituals today! This misses the point of Leviticus entirely. This kind of transactional holiness is blown away by the rich revelation of grace in the Levitical codes and sacrifices.
The origin of holiness is not in what we do for God, but in God’s grace to us. The very first words of the book alert us to this, “Then the Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting” (Lev 1:1). When no one could enter God’s dwelling place, God summoned Moses and spoke to him. The book of Leviticus is God’s gracious word concerning the way into his presence. In fact, the phrase “God spoke” appears 33 times throughout the book (Lev 1:1, 4:1, 5:14, 6:1, 6:8, 6:24, 7:22, 7:28, 8:1, 10:8, 11:1, 12:1, 14:1, 14:33, 15:1, 16:1, 17:1, 18:1, 19:1, 20:1, 21:16, 22:1 22:17, 22:26, 23:1, 23:9, 23:23, 23:26, 22:33, 24:1, 24:13, 25:1, 27:1). One example can illustrate the importance of God as the primary speaker throughout Leviticus.
Leviticus 16 records the rituals for the Day of Atonement, the once-a-year ritual that cleansed the Tabernacle from pollution and carried the people’s sins far away (16:16, 22). Here is how the chapter starts:
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the Lord and died. The Lord said to Moses, “Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
“Aaron is to enter the most holy place in this way: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering” (Lev 16:1-3).
The death of Nadab and Abihu in chapter 10 highlights the severity of approaching God. If we don’t come in God’s way, according to God’s provision, we will be consumed. Thus, chapter 16 is God’s provision of atonement so that Aaron can come into his presence, and as high priest, he can bring God’s people vicariously with him and not die. Rather than posting a sign on the door saying, “Keep away at all times,” God tells his people, “This is how you must come in to commune with me.” The holiness necessary to dwell in God’s presence finds its origin in God and its fulfillment in communion with God. The goal of holiness is communion with God (Heb 12:14). God’s grace creates holiness.
To use the language of today, Leviticus confronts us with a vision of gospel-formed holiness.
3. Leviticus is for Worship
Leviticus is about communion with God. Two important passages near the end of the book make this point clear.
Leviticus 24:1-9 has two instructions. First, for tending the lampstand so that it remains lit continuously. Second, for arranging the twelve loaves “to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant obligation on the part of the Israelites” (Lev 24:8). Together, these illuminate a glorious truth. Twelve loaves, representing the twelve tribes, basking in the light of God’s glory (symbolized in the lampstand), are sustained by the high priest who tends the lamps and arranges the bread. This is the goal of Leviticus; God’s people dwelling in the light of God’s presence. And this reality comes through the ministry of the high priest. No wonder Hebrews 9-10 makes such a big deal of Jesus as our new and better high priest!
The goal portrayed in Leviticus 24:1-9 is proclaimed in Leviticus 26:11-13, “I will place my residence among you, and I will not reject you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.” Leviticus is about freeing God’s people to worship God. In this way, Leviticus can give us a shot in the arm. D. Jeffrey Mooney and Jason DeRouchie note how worship in Leviticus contrasts with much of modern worship:
Modern worship is often characterized by ethos, talent, polish, and celebration over an assumed love provided by God to his darling worshippers. In sharp contrast, worship in Leviticus is marked by danger, expulsion, personal and corporate ethics, burning flesh, dried blood, sin, impurity, death, and a marked distinction between Israel and their holy redeemer God. (“Leviticus,” in What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared about: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible, 104).
Leviticus exults in the God, who alone is the sovereign creator who draws near to us and tabernacles with us. At the same time, it reckons with God’s holiness and the reality of our sin and uncleanness that must be atoned for to make us fit for life in God’s presence. And Leviticus states that the God who delivers his people from bondage (Exodus) by grace cleanses them through sacrifice and priesthood so that they can live in the joy of his presence. Our worship must be tuned by all these truths. Sobered by God’s holiness, seasoned by God’s grace, as we sing his praises in God’s presence.
4. Leviticus looks ahead
Leviticus is God’s answer to the crisis of separation between God and man. God creates and sustains the holiness necessary to maintain communion between God and man. But Leviticus is not the final answer. It is a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for Jesus, who fills in the shadows and fulfills all the Leviticus promises. Therefore, as Hebrews says,
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)— and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water (Heb 10:19-22).
A version of this article was first published on Scott’s Substack (https://writetounderstand.substack.com/p/read-leviticus-again)
