Project Description
2013/07
A Look at the Book: Leviticus
Of the five Books of Moses, Leviticus is less frequently read and judged the most difficult by many readers both young and old. Nevertheless, it is of supreme importance. As to order, this book is the third in the Pentateuch. Three in Scripture often has to do with resurrection. When the Lord Jesus Christ rose again on the third day, He entered into a new and wonderful ministry.
Announcing this, He said, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God,” John 20: 17. The new ministry to which He was ascending was His High Priestly ministry. It is no coincidence that Leviticus, the resurrection book of the Pentateuch, has to do with God’s High Priest presenting the blood of atonement in the sanctuary, or that Hebrews, the New Testament counterpart to Leviticus, should reveal how Christ fulfilled the Mosaic type by rising to ascend into the heavenlies to present His own precious blood at the mercy seat. There He has remained ever since, the Leviticus of the New Testament tells us, our Great High Priest making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). .
PROGRESSION
A progression is to be noted in three books of the Pentateuch. Where the word “Genesis” occurs in the New Testament it proclaims the birth of Christ. Where “Exodus” occurs in the NT it proclaims His sufferings unto death and His subsequent exit from this world. Leviticus, interpreted infallibly through Hebrews, portrays Him, who alone can wear the garments of glory and beauty, in His entrance into the sanctuary above. Numbers teaches a further lesson for the believer – his need to enter into God’s rest. Deuteronomy shows this inheritance to be a prepared place for a prepared people (cf John 14). In Joshua, Christ Himself appears as the Captain of the Lord’s Host to lead His people, their pilgrimage over and Jordan crossed, into their promised possession. Here is a gospel history complete in itself!
Again, as the third of five, Leviticus is the central book, and, dealing with worship as it does, it demonstrates that true worship and acceptance with God depends on the substitutionary and mediatorial work of Christ. This is the central truth of the Gospel, of the whole New Testament revelation as well as the Old. Further, it will be found that at the centre of this central book of Pentateuch lies that great chapter – which must therefore be at the very heart of the Torah – depicting the Day of Atonement. How clearly has the Holy Spirit shown the fundamental place belonging to the shed blood and the saving work of Christ! No man can embrace the holy law of God without delighting in the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Nor can he begin to understand the force and application of that law until he stands on redemption ground.
GOD’S WORDS
The Hebrew name of this book is taken from its opening words, “And He called.” To this also we must give attention. Leviticus contains more of the actual spoken words of God than any other book in scripture. All the way through, God is speaking directly to Moses. From the first verse, God calls to him. What honour, then, God has put on this part of the Bible! Let no one be guilty of neglecting its study.
Note, too, that while Genesis spans a period in the region of 2,300 years and Exodus, all told, possibly 360 years, this book, extraordinarily, was given in 50 days or less. The period concerned lies between the first day of the first month in the second year after the exodus, and the twentieth day of the second month, when Israel moved away from Sinai (Exodus 40:17 cf Numbers 10:11).
No reader should overlook the fact that in Genesis God spoke from Heaven (Genesis 22: 15). In Exodus, God spoke from Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3). In Leviticus, He speaks from the tabernacle of the congregation (1:1).
The Gospel is not the product of man’s so called ‘search for God’, as with the religions of the world. The Gospel is Divine in its origin. It is God coming down from Heaven to speak with man on earth. For sinful man to attempt to break through and commune with God in some other way is his own destruction. Exodus 19:11-13 teaches God’s unapproachable holiness. Sinful men must keep their distance from God, or perish. Those barriers between God and men are strictly observed. Man did not cross them. He could not. God bridged the gulf. In Leviticus, by means of the atoning blood, God speaks with men from between the cherubim on the mercy seat (Leviticus 17:11, Exodus 25: 22, Numbers 7:89). Through Jesus Christ we come boldly now to the throne of heavenly grace. The message of the old economy is “Keep away.” The message of the new is “Draw nigh.”
OUTLINE
Leviticus may be outlined in a 3-fold way
- Chapters 1-7: SACRIFICE
Here is enunciated the fact of Sin. No man can draw near to God empty handed (cf Exodus 23:15). He cannot come as he is. He needs an offering. Christ alone is that offering, John 1:29, 1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 10:1-19. By Him we approach God.
Study the five offerings described in the chapters. Observe that the sequence begins with acceptance with God (the burnt offering) and ends with the trespass offering, which, with the peace offering, shows how provision is made for the sinner’s peace and pardon.
- Chapters 8-15: SANCTIFICATION
The message here relates to the consecration and setting apart of God’s servants. In Exodus, the subject is the structure of the tabernacle. In Leviticus, the emphasis is on the service of the tabernacle. This is just one illustration of the vital unity of the Pentateuch, one book complementing another. Leviticus follows on from Exodus, begins, appropriately, with the conjunction (1:1).
Do take particular note of the fearful penalty of unsanctified service (chapter 10).
- Chapters 16-27: SANCTUARY
God’s sanctuary is to be reverenced and not defiled. In worship, men must distinguish the clean from the unclean, 20:3. (cf 19-30, 26:2 with 10:10, 11:47) Chapter 23 describes the seven feasts of the Lord through the year, beginning with the Passover and concluding with the Feast of Tabernacles, the former pointing to the first coming and the cross and the latter to the second coming and the crown. These three divisions of the book represent, typically, Christ’s propitiation, Christ’s priesthood, and Christ’s presence.
Dr. John Douglas
