STUDY GUIDE

Introduction

Have you ever hosted a guest in your home? If you have, then you likely spent a fair amount of time preparing for their arrival. You wiped the counters, cleaned the bathrooms, and mopped the floors. You likely asked them what kind of meals they enjoy so you can have good meals. You might even close off several rooms, setting boundaries for where the can and can’t go. All of this would be done because you respect and love the one you are inviting into your home and you want your home to be a reflection of your love and preparedness for their coming.

Raise the Need, State the Destination, Give Signposts:

Well, the Old Testament book of Leviticus is a lot like that. In Leviticus, God himself plans to come and dwell with his people in the Tabernacle. But, God’s holiness requires preparation. The life of Israel must be cleaned, and boundaries must be set, and respect must be paid for this is no ordinary houseguest.

Leviticus is often seen by many as an irrelevant book today. It seems antiquated, outdated, and laborious to read. Now, I will tell you that you ought to read Leviticus. It’s the Word of God, and therefore inspired and valuable. But I will also admit that if you have read Genesis and Exodus, well Leviticus is not as thrilling, and it’s not intended to be. Leviticus wasn’t written to spark interest. It’s not intended to captivate your beauty receptors.

Remember how I said Exodus gives instructions in how to build the Tabernacle? Well, Leviticus is like an Owner’s Manual for the Tabernacle. Exodus told Israel how to build it. Leviticus told them how to use it. So, it’s full of very specific and technical instructions for the Priests, the sacrifices, and the ritual cleanness of the people.

Nonetheless, there is much for us as New Covenant Christians to learn from the book of Leviticus. The Second London Confession of Faith says this:

In Leviticus… “God was pleased to give the people of Israel ceremonial laws… which prefigure Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits.”

In other words, Leviticus doesn’t just teach us the about the ancient worship practices of Israel: ultimately Leviticus is about Jesus Christ, the true sacrifice, the true Priest, the one who makes us clean.

So, let me give you an outline of the entire book, then I’ll give you my sermon outline. Here’s a great outline of the entire book by Peter Leithart:

1. Grab an animal to sacrifice (chs. 1-7).
2. Find yourself a priest (chs. 8-10).
3. He’ll make sure you’re clean (chs. 11-15).
4. So you can enter, with the priest and through blood, into the sanctuary (chs. 16-17).
5. After you leave the holy place, keep God’s commandments in the land – marital purity, justice and mercy, festivals, Jubilee (chs. 18-25).
6. Cause if you don’t, you’ll suffer the curses of the covenant. But, take heart. The Lord won’t abandon you. He’ll redeem His holy people (ch. 26-27).

That’s the entire book, but for our purposes this morning, let’s examine Leviticus under three headings:

Leviticus teaches us our need for:

1. A Sacrifice that Atones for Sin
2. A Priest Who Can Bring Us to God
3. A Cleanness That Can Keep Us Holy

I don’t know if I can make Leviticus a riveting experience, but I pray that after today we’ll have a better understanding of how this ancient book prefigures and prepares us for the need of Jesus Christ, the true sacrifice, the Great High Priest, and the one who takes away all our uncleanness. More than that, I pray you will put your faith in him today, and learn to walk in his ways.

Leviticus teaches our need for…

1. A Sacrifice That Atones for Sin

The book begins with instructions for Israel’s sacrifices:

Leviticus 1:1-5

The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.

3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

In all, Leviticus contains 5 general sacrifices the people of Israel were to make:

• Burnt Offering (Lev. 1:1-17; 6:8-13): a offering of an animal for general sinfulness and devotion to God.

• Grain Offering (Lev. 2:1-16; 6:14-23): an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord of flour, oil, and incense.

• Peace Offering (Lev. 3:1-17; 7:11-36): an offering of fellowship and vow fulfillment.

• Sin Offering (Lev. 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30): an offering for unintentional sins or sins of omission.

• Guilt Offering (Lev. 5:14-6:7; 7:1-10): an offering for sins like mishandling tithes, or wrongs against others like theft.

Those are the five general sacrifices given to the people. They were mostly voluntary and occasional. However, there is one central sacrifice in Leviticus, and we find it in chapter 16. This is, of course, the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. All of the other sacrifices in this book deal with the sins and needs of individuals. Now, the focus is on the making of atonement for all the uncleannesses and sins of the entire nation, beginning the High Priest all the way down to the youngest child.

Once a year, this single sacrifice cleansed the entire nation. The Hebrew word for atone means “to wipe clean.”

There was a toy I had growing up called a “MagnaDoodle.” Do they still make those? Basically it was a drawing tablet. You’d draw a picture, and then you could slide an eraser bar, and wipe the entire tablet clean. That’s what the Day of Atonement was.

The sacrifice itself was the offering of one bull and two goats. One goat was sacrificed as a sin offering for inadvertent sins; while the other was sent as a scapegoat into the wilderness. Do you see the imagery? The first goat received the penalty for the sins of the people, and the second goat symbolized God’s removing the sins of the people, taking their sin into the wilderness away from them.

The problem is that the Day of Atonement was imperfect; imperfect because it had to be repeated annually. The people would be cleansed, but another year would follow in which they would continue sinning, and so more bulls and goats would have to die.

Friends, the Day of Atonement was a shadow of Christ in the Old Testament. It prefigured the ministry of Jesus Christ, and prepared God’s people to see their need for a greater atonement that bulls and goats could never provide. Hebrews 9:11-14 puts it like this:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent …¹² he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

I realize that, for some of you, this all sounds strange. Perhaps you came to church today simply looking for ways to improve your life, yet here you are, listening to a sermon about the slaying of animals, and the death of Jesus Christ. You may wonder why a good God would require sacrifices; it seems so archaic or even cruel. I agree that it seems so different than what we’re used to. Leviticus was written for an ancient people. But understand that even during the time it was written, Leviticus would have seemed strange. While other ancient religions and cultures offered sacrifices to their gods, nearly all of them were for the purpose of appeasement. The gods were seen to be whimsical and capricious. Therefore, the sacrifices were given to get the gods on your side when you needed a good crop or to win a war. But Leviticus’ sacrifices point to an unchanging, holy God, who never acts on a whim, who we have offended, and whose holiness and justice must be satisfied. In the other religions, sacrifices were human inventions to get the gods on their side. In Leviticus, the sacrifices are God’s provision, to cleanse his people.

One of the central messages of the Bible is that God exists, He is holy, He made us, and we are unholy because of sin. Our sin must be atoned for. We need it wiped clean.

2. A Priest Who Brings Us to God

Leviticus 8-10 details the priesthood’s role in Israel. By appointing priests, God was telling the people: “You can’t just walk into my presence. I’m holy, and you are not. And, therefore, you need someone who can bring you into my presence, someone who can stand between us and represent you before my holiness.” And that’s what the priests were.

Let’s read from Leviticus 8:5-9; and engage your imagination here.

⁵ And Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done.” ⁶ And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.

• They’re in the desert. Everyone is dusty, but here is a man whose body is clean.

⁷ And he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band.

• A pure white tunic was covered by an apron like garment made of gold, blue, purple, and red yards. The front and back were held together at the shoulders by two onyx stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes, symbolizing the High Priests bearing the names of the people. A red, blue, and purple sash bound all together at the waist.

⁸ And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim.

• The breastplate contained 12 precious stones each engraved with a name of one of the 12 tribes. The Urim and the Thummim were an object for discerning the will of God, which we don’t know much about.

⁹ And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

• On his head was a linin turban, holding a golden plate which bore the words: “Holy to the Lord”

So you have a nation of desert wanderers: dirty, smelly, and sinful. And the Lord appointed one man to be clean, to wear beautiful clothes, and to be covered in gold and gems. And this is the only man who is allowed to go into the Holy of Holies, once a year, and offer blood for the cleansing of the people.

Do you see what God was teaching them? Dirty, smelly, common, and sinful people can’t simply march into his presence. Friends, it’s become common to think that God accepts anyone just as they are. It’s a very common idea that anyone can approach God. But that’s not exactly true.

It’s true that God calls sinners to come to himself. And it’s true that he will not turn away even the dirties, smelliest sinner. But it has never been true that a sinner can waltz into God’s presence and live. Sinners can only come into his presence through a priest; one who has been cleansed, clothed in beauty, and anointed. This is why God gave a priesthood in Leviticus.

But, of course, the Levitical priesthood was imperfect. There were good priests and bad priests. Just read Leviticus 9 later today. Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, performed unauthorized offerings for the Lord and the Lord consumed them in fire. It’s a warning, that God must be worshipped only in ways that he himself has authorized. And even the best priests still had their own sin and died. Hebrews 7:23-25 puts it like this:

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office…

²⁴ but he [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. ²⁵ Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Jesus Christ is the true and better high priest that the Levitical priests prefigured. Hebrews goes on:

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Friend, you can’t just waltz into God’s presence dressed in your sins. But you can bring your sins to Jesus Christ, the sinless priest who stands between you and God. He is standing as your representative.

3. A Cleanness that Can Keep Us Holy

Perhaps the most confusion section of Leviticus are chapters 11-15 which include laws about ritual cleanness. There are list of animal that are clean and unclean, fabrics which are clean and unclean, things you can and cannot touch, and various rituals you must perform if you are unclean in order to be made clean again.

This is that section of Leviticus we’re all tempted to skim in our Bible reading plans. You get to Leviticus 11 and read the section headings, scan down the big blocks of words, and say to yourself, “Yeah… I read that.”

But what are we to make of these laws? Well, these laws served both a practical and a theological purpose. Practically, these rules and regulations set Israel apart and distinguished them from the surrounding nations. God was, in essence, saying, “You are not going to be like the rest of mankind, and I’m going to make it obvious.

God cause his people to dress differently, eat differently, treat marital relations differently, and live differently than the nations around them. Practically this clearly and obviously set them apart.

But on a theological level, the cleanness laws serve to teach about God and our relationship to him, and we see this in Leviticus 10:10-11

10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.”

Holy and common. Clean and unclean. Those are the categories God wanted Israel to think in. The people were to be holy, or set apart for God, and they were to maintain their holiness and cleanness so they might approach him.

And let me tell you, the level of ritual cleanness that is demanded in Leviticus is basically impossible to keep. They might touch something dead, or eat the wrong kind of food. Without going into detail there were normal bodily functions that would make them unclean. Sicknesses and skin conditions may render them unable to enter God’s presence. Everything had to be purified, everything had to be maintained.

The theological picture is this: everything concerning us is actually unclean in God’s sight, and there’s no way to escape our uncleanness. Just as it was nearly impossible to get through an entire day without contracting some sort of uncleanness, so to sin had corrupted our inner person.

This is why Jesus says in Mark 7:15

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him… What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

And here’s what made the ministry of Jesus so shocking… everywhere you turn in the gospels, Jesus discards the ceremonial law:

Multiple times Jesus Christ, the clean man, touches an unclean leper, but instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the unclean person is made clean.

In Mark 5, a woman with an issue of blood touches the hem of his garment. She commits a terrible breach of the ceremonial law, but Jesus doesn’t chide her. He says her faith has made her whole.

Most surprising, Jesus leaves the women with an issue of blood and goes to the home of a man names Jairus, whose daughter has died. Jesus can heal her with just a command, but he goes beyond words and reaches out and takes her hand. Touching a corpse should have defiled Jesus, but instead, the girl is not only made clean, she is brought back to life.

Why is Jesus able to discard the ceremonial law? Because the ceremonial law was only a shadow pointing forward to the only truly clean and holy man. You see, Jesus never once set aside the moral law of the Ten Commandments, but he constantly set aside the ceremonial laws because he himself was their fulfillment.

Conclusion

Friends, the ceremonial law of Leviticus doesn’t just teach us the about the ancient worship practices of Israel. It is a history of their worship, but it’s so much more. Ultimately Leviticus is about Jesus Christ. Every word of Leviticus prefigures Him.

Leviticus reveals our need for a sacrifice to atone for sin, a priest who can being us to God, and a cleanness that can purify us. And Jesus fulfills all three: His death atones, His priesthood mediates, His cleanness becomes ours.

Most importantly, it doesn’t become ours through rituals. It becomes ours through faith. How can we have our sins wiped away? How can we enjoy the presence of God? How can we be made clean? Accept, receive, and rest upon Jesus Christ alone.