Through the Bible - Leviticus

For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy... For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44–45)

Leviticus is a bloody, costly book—and every offering, every altar, every drop of blood points straight to Jesus Christ.

The Book That Stops Bible-in-a-Year Readers

How many of you have set out to read the Bible in a year and hit the third book and had a problem? Tonight we're going to do our best to cover the whole book of Leviticus. Some of you made it a few chapters in and thought, "Let's just go to Numbers."

Notice that the very name Leviticus contains the name Levi. The word means "pertaining to the priesthood" or "pertaining to the Levites." This book surrounds the things that pertain to the priesthood.

Sacrifice From the Very Beginning

As we've gone through Genesis and Exodus, we've seen that God required sacrifices for fallen man to come before Him. All the way back in Genesis 3, right after the first sin, it appears there was a first sacrifice—God made clothing of skins for Adam and Eve to replace the fig leaves they had used. Man's way is inadequate. Trying to cover the first sin with fig leaves doesn't work.

So God had to show man how to approach Him, and it was through the sacrifices. In Genesis we see burnt offerings—offered by Abel, by Noah after the flood, by Abraham. Exodus then showed the way of redemption, as God brought Israel out of Egypt. We left off last week with the children of Israel building the tabernacle at Mount Sinai.

A Saved People Learning to Approach God

They spent about two years at Mount Sinai. The book of Leviticus covers only about a month, where God gives Moses and Israel instructions on how to approach Him. God had given them a tabernacle and the law in Exodus, and Exodus 40 ended with the cloud of God's glory descending on the tabernacle. Now they have a place of meeting where God will dwell with His people.

God's whole desire in bringing Israel out of Egypt was to dwell in their midst—a restoration of the fellowship Adam had when he walked with God in the cool of the day. Egypt is a picture of the world. God redeemed His people out of the world, gave them His commandments, and gave them a tabernacle, saying, "I want to dwell in the midst of you."

I don't understand where Christians get the idea that Old Testament Israel was saved by their sacrificial works. They were saved out of Egypt by God's grace and power before they had a tabernacle, before they were given the law, before they entered the covenant. Leviticus is not about how Israel would be saved—they were already redeemed. It is about how they would approach God.

The Priesthood—Then and Now

The priesthood was not meant only for the Levites. God desired that the whole nation of Israel would be a nation of priests. But they fell. It took only forty days of Moses being on the mountain before they turned to Aaron and made the golden calf, bowing down to it as the god who brought them out of Egypt.

When God called the faithful to come out from the camp, only the Levites showed up. They put swords at their sides and went through the camp, even striking down family members who had worshiped the calf—about three thousand died that day. It had to have been hard, but because of their faithfulness God made them the priestly tribe.

In the New Testament we do not have a Levitical priesthood. Peter writes:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

The church is filled with priests. We believe in the priesthood of all believers—that God desires every one of us to be used as a minister of His gospel, showing forth His praises.

Holiness, Sanctification, and the Blood

The primary theme of this whole book is holiness. Alongside it runs sanctification—a big word that simply means God cleanses us and sets us apart, consecrated unto Him. Holy means set apart, completely His.

It has been said it took God one night to get Israel out of Egypt, but forty years to get Egypt out of Israel. God had to cleanse and transform them. He's doing the same with us. We've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, yet how many of you still struggle with sin? We're all in the place of Romans 7: the good I want to do, I don't do. So in many ways we're in the place of Leviticus—redeemed out of Egypt, but Egypt still needs to get out of us.

The thing God uses to cleanse and transform is the blood. "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Blood appears 66 times in Leviticus' 27 chapters; the altar, 71 times. As Ray Stedman noted, it's probably no accident that God gave us five fingers to remember the five offerings: the burnt offering (seen 49 times), the grain offering (which the King James calls the meat or meal offering), the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the peace offering.

Brought Out to Be Wholly His

These offerings, along with many commands of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not," were God's way of sanctifying His people, making them His own peculiar treasure. Peter continues:

Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)

God brought us out of the world to make us His people, who would shine forth His light. The only way to shine that light is to be sanctified and set apart wholly and completely. He has brought us out to make us wholly His—and Colossians tells us we are complete in Him. Every offering, every sacrifice in this book is fulfilled in Jesus.

For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44)

Some think holiness is just for Old Testament people, yet Peter quotes this very command to the church. God says in verse 45 that He is the one who brought them up out of Egypt to be their God—therefore, be holy.

God Sanctifies; God Provides the Way

In Leviticus 20 God repeats the same purpose. Israel had been taken out of Egypt, but there was still much Egypt in them. Throughout Exodus, every time a lack arose, they wanted to go back to Egypt. But Moses—a picture of the law—every time took the complaint to God. That's what the law does: it points us to God. God had spent forty years in the wilderness sanctifying Moses, proving Himself faithful, just as He would prove Himself faithful to Israel.

Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God... I am the LORD which sanctify you. (Leviticus 20:7–8)

Who gave Israel the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the way to be sanctified? God did. He is the one who sanctifies. The same is true for us—God washes us with the washing of the water by His word (Ephesians 5). And 1 Corinthians 10 tells us all these things were written as examples for our instruction. We get to see a chosen people fail miserably, and we learn from them. But Paul assures us, "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it" (Philippians 1:6).

His Purpose Accomplished, the Process Sometimes Long

God told Israel He was bringing them to a land flowing with milk and honey. The journey from Egypt to Canaan should have taken about eleven days, plus their stay at Sinai—yet they wandered forty years because of hard-heartedness and clinging to the things of this world. Did God get them into the promised land? Absolutely—we'll see that in Joshua. His purpose is always accomplished, even when the process takes longer than He would desire.

God called them into His land, His place, to be His people who would shine to the world. They failed, and blindness has come upon the Jews until an appointed time. But in this day God has called out another people. As in the parable of the vineyard in Luke, the keeping of the vineyard has been given to others. God has given us this priestly ministry to show forth His praises.

Sanctified Through the Blood

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)

God says, "I have called you to Myself; you shall be holy because I am holy." The process of being made holy is sanctification, and that sanctification comes through the blood. Full salvation involves justification—God taking you out of the world and redeeming you by the blood of the Lamb—but also sanctification and ultimately glorification. If you have come to Christ by faith, you are in the process of being cleansed, and that cleansing happens by the blood.

So the key themes of Leviticus are atonement, sanctification, and holiness. The first sixteen chapters deal with the sacrifice and the blood, the laws of the acceptable approach to God, the laws of the priests, and the laws of purity—being clean and unclean. God is seeking to take Egypt out of His people. Egypt was filled with polytheism; God brings them out and says, "I want you to be Mine completely, and to serve only Me," anticipating Deuteronomy 6:4: "The LORD your God am one Lord."

Sanctification Is Neither Easy Nor Cheap

The Old Testament gives us pictures that reveal the principles, foreshadowing the coming of Christ. As you read 27 chapters of "this will make you unclean, this will make you clean, this is the sin offering, this is the burnt offering," with detailed instructions about skin and organs and fat and meat, it's easy to get bogged down. But here is the whole point: sanctification and holiness is not easy, and it's not cheap.

There is enormous work involved. The priestly garments were made of linen that could breathe because the priests worked hard, sunup to sundown—a sacrifice in the morning, another at night, another at midday, the lamps kept burning all night. This was twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

It was also costly. The tabernacle required gold, silver, skins, precious stones. Every male over twenty paid a shekel. Every time you came, you brought a sacrifice. On top of personal sacrifices, the nation provided for the feast days, the daily offerings, and the extra Sabbath offerings. It was very expensive to approach God this way. We may even see this expense again, for a third temple is coming—and the Western world will ask why so much money is spent and why these "barbaric" sacrifices are offered.

The Lord Seen Supremely

All of this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His being the Lamb of God was not cheap and was not easy. The same blood that released Israel from Egypt is the blood that sanctifies us now—the blood of Jesus.

If Genesis is about man and his inadequacy, and Exodus about God's redemption, then Leviticus is about the Lord. The Lord is seen 282 times in 27 chapters; "the LORD spake" appears 35 times. The author is clearly Moses, who wrote it down during that two-year period at Sinai—though now God no longer met him on the mountaintop but at the tabernacle. As always, it is God who comes down to man, the missionary God who came to Adam in the garden asking, "Where are you?"

God left it to His people: if you want to dwell with Me, here is the requirement. There was only one way to come.

Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 24:22)

Our God is immutable—He does not change. There was one way for Israel to approach God, and there is still one way for us: through the blood. The sacrifice is different now, because the sacrifice is Jesus, the last Passover Lamb. That is why there is no temple in Jerusalem and why it was destroyed in A.D. 70—in His mercy, lest Rome turn it into a pagan temple for Caesar.

You Are the Temple

We know from 1 Corinthians that we are the temple of the living God. When Jesus began His ministry He cleansed the temple (John 2), and near its end He cleansed it again (Luke). Why twice in three years? Because we have a tendency to clutter things up, and we need the Lord to clean us out and sanctify us. That is why it is so important to be in God's word—He cleanses us by the washing of the water of the word.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

We offer spiritual sacrifices—not lambs and goats, but the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips (Hebrews 13). Jesus told the woman at the well that God seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. As priests in our day, we offer spiritual sacrifices and are to be a light to the world.

Jesus, the Fulfillment of Every Offering

Everything in Leviticus points to Jesus. Notice from Hebrews how He differs from the Levitical priests, who could rarely sit down:

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)

Jesus, the burnt offering. The burnt offering was a sweet-smelling savor.

Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

Like the sweet aroma of barbecue you catch on the breeze—my mom once smelled an In-N-Out around the corner before we ever saw it—the continual burnt offering ascended to God constantly. He is the last burnt offering needed.

Jesus, the grain (meal) offering, offered as the first fruits.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Jesus, the peace offering.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

Jesus, the sin offering.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When you offered a sin offering, you placed your hands on the animal's head and confessed your sin. God was not a respecter of persons: if you were too poor for a bull, bring a lamb; if too poor for that, bring doves; if too poor still, bring fine flour—for it had to cost you something (Leviticus 5:11). The animal had to be without spot or blemish. As you laid your hands on its head, it was as if your sin was transferred to it in God's accounting, and it died in your place. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

Jesus, the trespass (guilt) offering.

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

This was prophesied in Isaiah 53:10: "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him... when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." By His stripes we are healed. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, and Leviticus makes that clear.

The Altar God Prepared

His blood was given on an altar God ordained—Golgotha, the top of Mount Moriah, 777 meters above sea level. This is the very place where God told Abraham to take his only son Isaac and offer him, and where Abraham said, "God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering." Thousands of years later, Jesus was offered there. When He walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24), reasoning from all the Scriptures how the Christ must suffer, I have no doubt He spoke to them of the things of Leviticus—of how the sacrifice must die. I look forward to listening to that conversation when we get to heaven.

Two Warnings in the Midst of the Sacrifices

In these 27 chapters there are two short narratives that stand apart, and both carry important warnings.

The first is Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1). The sons of Aaron took their censers, put fire and incense in them, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded. Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. Moses said, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." Aaron held his peace. Some believe they may have been intoxicated, given the next command in the chapter. The warnings here are clear: an improper approach to God, an improper witness before the people, and an improper use of the priestly office—and there came a judgment of fire. Jesus warned in Matthew 7 of those who will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?" to whom He will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you," and Revelation shows them cast into the lake that burns with fire.

The second is the blasphemer (Leviticus 24:10–16). The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian father blasphemed the name of the Lord. They held him in custody until the mind of the Lord was shown, and the Lord commanded that whoever curses his God shall bear his sin, and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death—whether born in Israel or a stranger. In the midst of all the sacrifices, there were two things God detested and would judge: the hypocrisy of those like Nadab and Abihu—like the scribes and Pharisees Jesus rebuked in Matthew 23—and blasphemy of His name.

All Fulfilled in Christ

The most important thing to take from this book is that all 27 chapters of cost and work—everything required to approach God and have His presence and power in your midst—are ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

God has redeemed us out of Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, by the blood of the Lamb. Now that He's brought us out, He wants to dwell in our midst. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and as He dwells in us He desires to cleanse and sanctify us, because He has called us to be holy, for He is holy. On top of that, He has called us to be His priests—to show forth His praises and declare to the world that there is one true God who calls people out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Closing Prayer

God, I thank You that Your word is truth. And Jesus, You said, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth," as You prayed Your high priestly prayer in John 17. We pray that You would sanctify us and cleanse us by the washing of the water of the word. Help us, Lord, to daily spend time in that spiritual sacrifice of studying Your word, of praising Your name, that we would be able to shine brightly Your light to this world, that we would fulfill the office of the priest You have called us to. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.