Leviticus
Amen. Hey, before we get into the text, I want to do something just kind of a little unique, and that’s to talk to the people watching via video. We introduced video teaching a while back, and the reality is when we did, people thought we were crazy. I think I was the first on the list, because we thought, well, the last thing people want to do is watch video, right? Especially have a digital pastor—the “Digipastor.” Nobody wants that. But innovation has allowed us to be in multiple places at one time, and so we’re very grateful for campuses that are watching via video, for church plants that are watching via video, and even our online community. Thank you for letting innovation spread the gospel in a way that none of us would have ever expected, especially when we started the church. I just appreciate your patience in that regard.
If you’ve got a Bible, let’s turn to the book of Leviticus. You can unstick the pages; there is no shame. If you’re not sure where Leviticus is, the table of contents is your friend—find the page number. We are going to work through the book.
Breaking 400 Years of Old Habits
To set it up: have you ever been around somebody who had an annoying bad habit? If they’re sitting next to you, don’t say it out loud, but have you ever been around somebody like that? They do something, they say something, and it drives you nuts. But have you ever realized that you start doing it? I mean, how quickly does that happen, right?
A roommate says something that you would never say, and you think, That’s so dorky. Why would you even say that? Why would you say the word “dorky”? But they say it, and then suddenly you say it. You pick up on their habits, you pick up on their mannerisms, and you pick up on their expressions. It happens quickly. You move in with a new roommate—if you’re a college student, you know what I’m talking about—and within a couple of weeks after the semester starts, you’re picking up some of their stuff.
How about after 430 years? Would you pick up nuances from the culture? Would the culture begin to influence you? Would the expressions, behaviors, or the things that they did begin to become normal for you after 400 years?
That is exactly what the people of God have gone through. We left them when we finished Genesis in Egypt, and Jared did a great job walking through Exodus and getting them out. As they come out of Egypt, we need to remember that the easy part was getting them out of Egypt. The hard work, the heavy lifting, is going to be getting Egypt out of them. Because after 400 years, old habits are hard to break.
Think about it in our own lives. We come to faith in Christ, we read the text, and it says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things pass away, and new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
We go, Great, so I’m going to live new. But we still live like the old person, don’t we? Why? Because old habits are hard to break. It is ingrained in us.
How about 400 years of paganism? How about 400 years of an Egyptian pantheon and their worship practices? At one point, Jacob and his sons surely said, “No, we worship God. Not your gods, our God.” But what we see in the book of Exodus is that a king arises over Egypt who does not remember who Joseph was.
Exodus 1:8 (NASB)
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Generation after generation, the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became just distant stories—like George Washington and the cherry tree, or honest Abe Lincoln. For us, those stories are only a couple of centuries old. Imagine 400 years. The things of God became old, and the paganism of Egypt influenced them.
So when they come out of Egypt, God delivers them, walks them into the wilderness, and one of the first things they do is build a golden calf. Don’t judge them too quickly. That is what they knew; that is what they did. Their first reaction was, We need a tangible god. So they created the golden calf.
Yet God is so gracious and kind. God says, “I’m going to provide for you an understanding of how we are going to live, because we are not going to live like that anymore. We’re not going to do that anymore. So I’m going to give you My law.”
The Law and the Tabernacle
His law has three primary parts. It has a moral portion: here is how we ought to live morally as a people under the authority of the one true God. He gives them civil law: how they are to relate to one another in society. And then He gives them ceremonial law: this is how you will worship, and this is how your religious life will be expressed.
Then He builds for them a sanctuary. Don’t think sanctuary like a castle, cathedral, or giant church building. He builds them a 45-foot by 15-foot by 15-foot tent. It was not meant to be architectural grandeur. It is not about what is inside; it is about who dwells in it. God, in His grace, chooses to dwell among the people. Look, we are talking about Almighty God who spoke the world into existence. The last thing He needs is a motel room. He didn’t need a place to live; He did it for them, because they needed it. After 400 years of watching the worship of the Nile, the sun god, and Pharaoh, they needed something tangible. God said, I get it, and He dwelt among them in the tabernacle.
They were called to be a mobile people. Even the word “Hebrew” carries the concept of crossing over or passing through. They were sojourners. They were never meant to establish themselves at a permanent street address in the wilderness; they were meant to be mobile.
In this tabernacle, God provided a place where He would dwell and a place where they were shown how to approach Him. It was a constant reminder of separation. Only the priests could enter the tabernacle, and only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that only one day a year on the Day of Atonement. There was a separation, and it was all meant to point to something bigger in anticipation of the true High Priest who would one day come.
As these sojourners traveled, they were divinely guided. They had a pillar of fire by night. I don’t know if you have kids, but my kids love a nightlight. God gave Israel a nightlight by night just to remind them, I’m still here. Go to sleep. It’s all good. Then He gave them a cloud by day. Have you ever been in scorching heat and a thick cloud rolls over, and you just breathe a sigh of relief? He gave them comfort by night and shade by day, walking them under the shadow of His wing.
In Leviticus, God introduces two foundational concepts: atonement and mediation. As the grand story unfolds, you get to the end, you see Jesus, and when you replay the tapes, you realize what it was pointing to all along. Leviticus is written to show you what would one day come.
Offerings and the Need for a Mediator
The overarching theme of Leviticus is holiness. God is walking His people through a description of how they ought to live. He is reprogramming them. Anyone who has raised kids knows what it is to reprogram them. Because they were brought forth with a sinful nature, they say “Mine!” and “No!” with a vengeance. You have to say, “No, sweetie, we don’t live like that. We share. We are generous. We obey.” God had to say to His people, Look, kids, we don’t live like Egypt anymore. This is how we live.
Chapters 1 through 7 begin with the offerings. People often get lost in the weeds here because it is offering after offering after offering. But look at what God is laying out:
- The Burnt Offering (Chapter 1): An atonement for sin in general, offered completely to the Lord.
- The Grain Offering (Chapter 2): An offering of thanksgiving and dedication, saying, “I’m committing myself to You, Lord.”
- The Peace Offering (Chapter 3): An expression of gratitude and a desire for fellowship and relationship with God.
- The Sin Offering (Chapter 4): Atonement for unintentional sins—the “oops, my bad” moments where you failed.
- The Guilt Offering (Chapter 5): Atonement for specific, known sins—the “I knew better and did it anyway” sins.
By the time you finish reading about these offerings, you are supposed to feel worn out. That is the point! How many of us need general atonement? All of us. How many of us desire fellowship with God? How many of us commit unintentional sins or deliberate sins? We would have to offer sacrifices constantly.
God was teaching them: you don’t worship the small-g god Ra; you worship the capital-G God whose name is Yahweh—“I AM WHO I AM.” But you cannot approach Me casually, and you cannot do it on your own. You need atonement, and you need a mediator.
The Priesthood: Consecration and Reverence
In chapters 8 through 10, God establishes the priesthood. These were not like the sorcerers of Egypt pulling tricks. These men had a difficult, bloody, exhausting, and essential job: they were the mediators between a holy God and a sinful people.
In chapter 8, the priests are consecrated. Blood from the sacrifice is placed on their right ear, their right thumb, and their right big toe.
Leviticus 8:23 (NASB)
Moses slaughtered [it] and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
Why? The blood on the ear so that they might hear God; on the thumb so that they might work for God; on the toe so that they might walk with God. They were wholly set apart for the Lord.
In chapter 10, we see the danger of taking God’s holiness lightly. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, decided to get careless with God’s commands. In Exodus 30, God gave an exact formula for the incense in the tabernacle. But these guys decided to tweak the recipe. Have you ever cooked something and just thrown in extra spices, ignoring the instructions? Nadab and Abihu put their own spin on approaching God. Verse 2 tells us that fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them.
Leviticus 10:2 (NASB)
And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
That sounds severe, but God was establishing a clear principle right at the beginning: you do not approach God based on your own opinions or preferences. You approach Him only on His terms. There is no backdoor, no customization, and no personalization. You come the way He prescribed.
Purity and the Day of Atonement
Chapters 11 through 15 deal with practical purity and cleanliness. Imagine a massive community moving through the desert, directed only by the cloud. When the cloud moved, whether it was after a month or the very next morning, you packed up your family and followed. God was teaching them total obedience.
With hundreds of thousands of people camping together, sanitation was crucial. What animals could they eat? How do you handle hygiene, childbirth, dead carcasses, and infectious skin diseases? If someone had a contagious disease, they were isolated outside the camp. There was no urgent care clinic or pharmacy in the wilderness. If sickness spread, the whole camp was at risk. God gave practical laws to preserve and protect His people.
Everything in the book builds to chapter 16: the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This was the high point of the Jewish year. Only on this one day could the High Priest enter the Holy of Holies.
Leviticus 16:5-6 (NASB)
’He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ’Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.
He would bring two goats. One goat was sacrificed as a sin offering, its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. Over the second goat, the High Priest laid his hands, confessed all the iniquities and transgressions of the people, and sent it out into the wilderness, bearing away their sins. That is where our term “scapegoat” comes from. It was a vivid picture of sins covered and removed.
A Distinct People
From chapter 17 onward, God outlines what practical holiness looks like for the community. In chapters 18 through 20, He addresses morality, family, and sexuality. The driving theme is found in Leviticus 19:
Leviticus 19:2 (NASB)
’Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ’You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
He told them: you saw the unrestrained indulgence of Egypt for 400 years, but you are not to live like that. He gives strict prohibitions against incest, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, and child sacrifice. God takes the sanctity of life and the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman with utmost seriousness.
In chapters 21 and 22, God highlights the moral standards for the priests. If the priests were corrupt, the nation fell into corruption; when the priests walked faithfully, the spiritual life of the nation flourished.
In the New Testament, Peter tells us that we are now a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God’s] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Every believer is part of the priesthood of believers. We are called to reflect His holiness and proclaim His excellencies to a world walking in darkness.
Chapters 23 through 27 lay out the feasts and sacred festivals. The people of God knew how to celebrate! They observed the weekly Sabbath—stopping from labor to rest and remember God’s goodness. They celebrated Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, where they built temporary shelters to remember God’s faithfulness during the wilderness wanderings. Their entire calendar was shaped by remembering who God is and what He had done.
The Shadow and the Reality
Why did God give all these shadows, forms, sacrifices, and feasts?
Turn over to Hebrews 10. When you understand Leviticus, the book of Hebrews lights up in high definition.
Hebrews 10:1-4 (NASB)
For the Law, since it has [only] a shadow of the good things to come [and] not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those [sacrifices] there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The law was a shadow of the good things to come, not the true form of those realities. The repetitive animal sacrifices could never make anyone perfect. If they had actually solved the sin problem once and for all, they would have stopped offering them!
Animal blood atoned for sin—it covered it temporarily, kicking the can down the road—but it could never take sin away. You walked out of the tabernacle, sinned again, and had to bring another lamb. It was an endless, exhausting cycle.
Then Jesus stepped into human history. When John the Baptist saw Him walking toward the Jordan River, what did he declare?
John 1:29 (NASB)
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ’Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Every Jewish person listening must have stopped in their tracks. Takes away? The sacrifices they knew only covered sin; Jesus came to remove it completely.
Look at how the writer of Hebrews explains it:
Hebrews 10:11-14 (NASB)
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
Every Old Testament priest stood daily, ministering repeatedly with sacrifices that could never take away sins. But when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. An Old Testament priest never sat down in the tabernacle because his work was never done. Jesus sat down because His work was finished. On the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!”
John 19:30 (NASB)
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 (NASB)
Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Our modern culture hears that and says, “That sounds so exclusive and narrow!” But through the lens of Leviticus, it makes absolute sense. God has always set the terms for how unholy people approach a holy God. Nadab and Abihu thought they could approach God on their own terms, and it cost them their lives. Jesus is God’s provided, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice.
Stepping Off the Treadmill
Too many of us are still trying to live like an uneducated Old Testament person. We try to work our way to God: Be good, don’t steal, keep the rules, try harder. We get on a religious treadmill, attempting to atone for our own failures. It is completely exhausting.
The message of Leviticus is not, “Try your hardest to make yourself holy.” The message is, “You can never make yourself holy on your own; you desperately need a mediator and a perfect sacrifice.”
You have that mediator in Jesus Christ. You don’t need an earthly priest to access God. You don’t need a ritual of animal sacrifices. You don’t need to try to earn your way into His favor.
Romans 5:1 (NASB)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want peace with God, you do not find it through moral performance. You find it by placing your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. You can keep running on the treadmill of self-effort, or you can rest in the Savior who paid it all.
Let’s pray together.
Father, when we read a book like Leviticus, it is easy to get caught up in questions about details, rituals, and laws, and completely miss the point. The point is that we have a Great High Priest who came to do what we could never do. You made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. All of us, like sheep, had gone astray, but You laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
We receive freely today the salvation that cost Jesus His life. We look to the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, who cleanses us and makes us white as snow. Help us to rest fully in His finished work. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.