Problems in Understanding Leviticus
Leviticus in Redemptive History
The Mosaic Covenant and the New Creation
The Global Message of Leviticus for Today
Introduction to Leviticus
Timeline
Author
As with the other books of the Pentateuch, it is best to see Moses as the source and primary author of Leviticus 1:1. In Leviticus 1:1, Moses continues the story of Exodus 1:1.
Theme and Purpose
The book of Leviticus 1:1 goes into deeper detail about the divine-human relationship put in place on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1). Leviticus 1:1 assumes that Israel is sinful and impure, and it describes how to deal with sin and impurity so that the holy Lord can dwell among his people.
Problems in Understanding Leviticus
Readers may find Leviticus 1:1 difficult to understand because they lack firsthand experience of the practices it describes.
Ritual vs. ethical commands. Chapters Leviticus 1:1 describe various “ritual” regulations, while chs. Leviticus 17:1 focus on ethical commands. Because the rituals of chs. Leviticus 1:1 are unfamiliar, they are often seen as being disconnected from the ethical emphasis of the later chapters. It is more accurate, however, to see the entire book as being concerned with Israel’s being holy to the Lord.
Unclean, clean, holy. Leviticus 1:1 often uses these terms differently than today. Modern readers might think of “clean” vs. “unclean” as being the same as healthy vs. unhealthy. In Leviticus 1:1, however, these words do not refer to hygiene. Rather, they describe the types of actions a person may or may not engage in, or the places he may or may not go. For example, those who are unclean may not partake of a peace offering (Leviticus 7:20). A modern analogy might be registering to vote: a person who is “registered” may vote, whereas a person who is not registered may not vote. The ritually “clean” person is not necessarily more righteous than one who is ritually unclean, just as a person who is registered to vote is not necessarily more righteous than a person who is not.
Even though ritual states and moral states are different, however, the ritual states in Leviticus 1:1 also seem to symbolize grades of moral purity. By constantly calling the Israelites to ritual purity, the Lord was reminding them of their need for also seeking moral purity (Leviticus 20:24).
NT relevance of commands in Leviticus 1:1. What does Leviticus 1:1 have to do with the church today? The sacrificial system of Leviticus 1:1 has ceased for the people of God; it has been fulfilled in the coming of Christ (see Hebrews 9:1, Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:1). However, studying these laws is important because the sacrifices point to different aspects of the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice of himself.
Second, the Holiness Code (chs. Leviticus 17:1) deals with sanctification, that is, how one lives in the covenant community. The NT applies to Christians the same principle stated in Leviticus 11:44, “be holy, for I am holy” (see 1 Peter 1:16). On the other hand, several details of the Holiness Code concern more symbolic aspects of holiness that are no longer followed in the Christian era (such as laws prohibiting garments with two kinds of cloth, Leviticus 19:19, or prohibiting the shaving of the edges of a beard, Leviticus 21:5). Further, the NT envisions a people of God transcending national boundaries. Therefore, current civil governments need not follow the OT civil laws (such as capital punishment for adultery; Leviticus 20:10), although of course all governments must pursue justice, and Leviticus 1:1 may certainly help in this regard.
Key Themes
- The holy Lord is present among his people (Exodus 40:34; Leviticus 1:1). They must therefore admit their sin and impurity and strive for personal holiness.
- In order to approach God, worshipers must be wholehearted in their devotion (Leviticus 1:1; Leviticus 22:17).
- Those called to be spiritual leaders, such as priests, bear a heavier responsibility than the laypeople (chs. Leviticus 4:1; Leviticus 21:1). In addition to the outward holiness that the priests receive when they are ordained, they must maintain inward holiness (chs. Leviticus 8:1; Leviticus 9:1; Leviticus 10:1; Leviticus 21:1).
- As is seen in the Day of Atonement ritual (ch. Leviticus 16:1), the total cleansing of sins and uncleanness happens only when the innermost part of the tabernacle is purified. Humans, by themselves, can never achieve complete purification from sin.
- Atonement is a gracious act of the Lord (Leviticus 17:11).
Outline
- Five Major Offerings (Leviticus 1:1)
- Handling of the Offerings (Leviticus 6:8)
- The Establishment of the Priesthood (Leviticus 8:1)
- The Laws on Cleanness and Uncleanness (Leviticus 11:1)
- The Day of Atonement Ritual (Leviticus 16:1)
- The Handling and Meaning of Blood (Leviticus 17:1)
- The Call to Holiness (Leviticus 18:1)
- Holy Times (Leviticus 23:1)
- Blessings and Curses (Leviticus 26:1)
- Vows and Dedication (Leviticus 27:1)
The Setting of Leviticus
c. 1446 B.C.
The book of Exodus 1:1 finishes with Moses and Israel having constructed and assembled the tabernacle at the base of Mount Sinai. The book of Leviticus 1:1 primarily records the instructions the Lord gives to Moses from the tent of meeting, but also includes narratives of a few events related to the tabernacle. (Regarding the date of the exodus, see Introduction to Exodus, and note on 1 Kings 6:1.)
The Global Message of Leviticus
Leviticus in Redemptive History
The book of Leviticus 1:1 takes place within the larger context of Exodus 19:1 to Numbers 10:1. The historical setting is that of Israel encamped at the base of Mount Sinai. Thus the book of Leviticus 1:1 is a kind of parenthesis within the ongoing story of redemptive history, placed there to explain Israel’s specific obligations within the Mosaic covenant.
The purpose of Leviticus 1:1 is to instruct Israel concerning how to maintain holiness within the community, so that the Lord would continue to dwell among them. The Lord desires to dwell among his people so that he might bless them with his presence. If the Lord is with his people, Israel can then fulfill its vocation as his “kingdom of priests,” to mediate the Abrahamic blessing to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3; Exodus 19:5).
The Holiness of God
It is the Lord’s desire and intent to dwell among his people. Yet how can the perfectly holy God dwell among an unholy people? The golden calf rebellion, narrated in Exodus 32:1, revealed that Israel herself is subject to the fundamental problem of the evil heart. Israel lives in, and is part of, a fallen world filled with disease, decay, and death. Unholiness permeates everything, and holiness and unholiness must never come in contact with each other. When they do, the results are catastrophic (see also Leviticus 10:1). What is the way forward, if God is to dwell with his people?
The Sacrificial System
The answer to this problem, as presented in Leviticus 1:1, is a sacrificial system. The tabernacle and the sacrifices offered there have been established so that the Lord can rest safely within the clean camp of Israel. The priests must strictly guard the sanctity of the tabernacle by purifying it regularly with sacrificial blood, which God designated as the cleansing agent. If, however, moral filth pollutes the tabernacle to a level that God cannot tolerate, he will be unable to dwell among his people. The Lord must then cast Israel away from his presence. Thus the threatened covenant curses climax with exile from the Promised Land, away from the presence of the Lord (Leviticus 26:33). In exile, deprived of God’s presence, Israel would become like any other nation and the Abrahamic mission (Genesis 12:3) would be dissolved.
The Mosaic Covenant and the New Creation
To understand Leviticus 1:1 fully, the book must be viewed within its larger framework of global redemptive history. Israel functions within the Mosaic covenant stage of this history, as a pattern of the Creator-King’s ultimate global program of new creation—that is, the restoration of Eden (see the “Global Message” essays on Genesis 1:1 and Exodus 1:1). As Israel lived in holiness to the Lord in the Promised Land, he would bless her with such life that she would become a paradise-kingdom, a kind of miniature Eden. Rains in due season would bring about agricultural abundance (Leviticus 26:3, Leviticus 26:10). The people would dwell in safety and security (Leviticus 26:5). The creation mandate to “be fruitful and multiply” would find fulfillment in Israel’s multiplying families (Leviticus 26:9; see Genesis 1:28). The Lord himself would dwell and walk among them, even as he did in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve (Leviticus 26:12; see Genesis 3:8). Israel would be God’s people and the Lord would be their God (Leviticus 26:12).
Holiness before God
Leviticus 1:1 displays the magnificent reality of the Lord’s presence with his people in the tabernacle. Because of God’s presence with them, the book declares again and again, “You shall be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7, Leviticus 20:26; Leviticus 21:8). To be holy means to be sacred, set apart from what is common for service to the holy God. A person or thing is made holy, or sanctified, by the blood of sacrifice. Conversely, a person or thing is de-sanctified, made common or unclean, by sin or contact with something or someone designated as unclean. All areas of life are regulated so that Israel might know the difference between what is holy and common, clean and unclean (Leviticus 10:10).
In the New Testament, this theme of holiness is picked up in 1 Peter 1:1 and reapplied to Peter’s Gentile (non-Jewish) audience. Having been redeemed by the sacrificial blood of Christ, Christians inherit Israel’s calling as members of the new covenant community. They must therefore live in true holiness before the holy God (1 Peter 1:15; 1 Peter 2:9).
Universal Themes in Leviticus
The centrality of God. Leviticus 1:1 teaches that God is the center of all of life. God is the supreme reality around whom everything revolves and for whom all exists. Leviticus 1:1 quietly yet clearly arranges all of life—space, persons, time, animals, possessions—around God. Everywhere in the world, down through human history, all of life gains its meaning only in relation to him.
The holiness of God. Leviticus 1:1 teaches further that perfect holiness is required to be in the presence of the perfectly holy God. Once a year, on the holiest day of the calendar (the Day of Atonement), the holiest person (the high priest) enters the holiest place (the Most Holy Place), and offers the sacrifice upon the holiest object (the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant). This sacrifice provides a complete purification of the entire camp. Yet this sacrifice needed to be repeated annually, because it did not secure deliverance from the root cause of all sin, the evil human heart. Only in Jesus Christ was the ultimate cleansing achieved for the people of God, when God put him forward as the ultimate Day of Atonement sacrifice for anyone who believes (Romans 3:21; Hebrews 9:6; Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 13:11).
The Global Message of Leviticus for Today
Love of God and sexual holiness. Jesus Christ pronounced all foods clean, eliminating certain distinctions that God had established in Leviticus 1:1 for the old covenant people of God (Mark 7:19; compare Romans 14:13). Jesus did, however, reassert the validity of the book’s command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He taught that it was the second most important commandment of the law, second only to loving God with all one’s heart and soul and mind (Leviticus 19:18; see Matthew 22:34; compare Romans 13:8; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8). While numerous issues could be addressed with this command, one of the most urgent globally is that of sexual holiness. The gift of sex is reserved for one man and one woman within the permanent, sacred relationship of marriage. Sex, however, remains one of humanity’s most powerful drives, and disciples across the globe often give in to temptation to sexual immorality. The result is defilement before a holy God, who warns that, while forgiveness remains for the penitent, those who persist in such unholy immorality will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:5).
Love of neighbor and sexual practice. What is often neglected in discussion of sexual immorality is how such acts transgress the command to love our neighbor, a command highlighted in Leviticus 1:1. Sexual sin always affects others. Adultery shatters the life of the adulterer’s spouse. Premarital sex robs a future marital partner of the wedding gifts of virginity, exclusivity, and chastity. Incest and sexual abuse destroy the family, shake the community, and put future marriage relationships at a disadvantage. Sex trafficking exploits women and children, selling them into horrifying conditions caused by greed and lust. If the global church does not speak out against such evils, we become, to some degree, complicit in them (see Leviticus 5:1; James 4:17). All of life’s choices must be made in light of the command to love our neighbor. Immorality always harms others and leaves victims in its wake. In light of God’s holiness and his deliverance of us to himself, we must love our neighbor.