Leviticus is More Important Than You Think

When I was a student in Bible college, I can vividly remember when our campus pastor announced one Sunday that he was going to embark on a new preaching series … the Book of Leviticus. As a young college student with some knowledge of the content of Leviticus, I knew this would not be an easy task, but I was also glad he took on this task. To my dismay, he didn’t cover every paragraph of the book; I hoped he would tackle the strange and unusual commands. However, the portions that he did choose to cover opened my young eyes to the enduring value of this often-skipped book. My most significant takeaway through that preaching series was that it is impossible to fully appreciate the New Testament without an Old Testament foundation. Twenty-five years later, I am still convinced of this truth, but I have also found that Leviticus is far more important than I realized. Consider the cultural context of the New Testament Gospels, for example. Do you realize how much the Gospels rely on a knowledge of Leviticus? One author says it this way, “Many parts of the Gospels simply assume the reader has a knowledge of Leviticus: passages that mention purification after childbirth, washing after the healing of a leper, journeys to the feasts in Jerusalem, separation from Gentiles in eating—all show how completely Leviticus was ingrained in the thinking of the people.”1 No other Old Testament book was intertwined into the daily life of a Jew like the Book of Leviticus – this is why we must not pass over it. Like all portions of God’s Word, it’s not enough to just read them; we must also study them, meditate on them, and seek to obey them. But, I can hear even the seasoned Bible reader say, “How am I supposed to study and meditate on something that I don’t understand? When I read Leviticus, it goes in one ear and out the other.” If this is your dilemma, then I pray that the content below will help you better understand the value of Leviticus, be it your first time reading it through or your fiftieth.

Before getting our feet wet, we need some original context to guide our steps. Leviticus comes right on the heels of the Tabernacle building project that encompassed the last part of Exodus. Israel now has a space in which they can worship God, but the instructions on how to worship have not been given yet. Therefore, over the next 30 days, Moses orally recites what God has told him concerning the sacrificial system, and it is written down so that the people have a guidebook to follow. It cannot be overstated that God was the One who delivered these instructions to Moses (20 of the 27 chapters of Leviticus begin with the phrase, “The Lord spoke to Moses…”), and therefore they needed to be adhered to precisely as God commanded.  Did that last thought track with you? Let me state it another way: no other book in the Old Testament contains more of God’s direct words than Leviticus. Hence, Leviticus is more important than we think.    

For my Bible brain, Leviticus is divided into two main sections: sacrifice (chapters 1-10) and sanctification (chapters 11-27). Both are tied to the theme of holiness, which permeates the book. Everything in Leviticus centers around how a holy God can dwell with an unholy people, which is another reason why the Tabernacle was needed: a space for God to dwell. The book of Numbers tells us that the 12 tribes of Israel were encamped around the Tabernacle, meaning that they were outside of God’s holy presence that dwells in the Holy of Holies. If an Israelite needed to approach God, whether voluntarily or mandatory, a visit to the Tabernacle was needed. Depending on the reason for coming to the Tabernacle, the priests would advise and/or assist the people so that their offering was acceptable to God. Every time they approached the Tabernacle, the reality that they lived near the presence of a holy God was clear. A holy God cannot look upon sin, and so an offering was required to cover the individual so that God would not see the sin but would see the sacrifice instead. When God looks at believers today, He doesn’t see our sins; He sees the sacrifice of His Son, which satisfies Him. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the Cross, we can come freely into His presence to worship Him, petition Him, confess our sins, or thank Him. But any of God’s people came to the Tabernacle, an offering was required; it cost them something. If they came voluntarily to offer a burnt, grain, or fellowship offering (Leviticus 1-3), it cost them something; if they came mandatorily to offer a sin or trespass offering (Leviticus 4-7), it cost them something. Sometimes, we don’t appreciate what Christ’s once and for all sin sacrifice did for us until we read Leviticus.

Holiness was not only necessary in order to approach the Tabernacle; holiness also needed to be the lifestyle of every Israelite. Leviticus 19:2 says, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” A holiness lifestyle is what the rest of Leviticus is all about, and a holiness lifestyle is what every believer should pursue (Romans 12:1-2). However, sometimes, New Testament believers are guilty of casually dismissing holiness in lieu of the familiar mantra, “What would Jesus do?” This is irony at its best because Jesus is God and is, therefore, holy.  We must not dismiss holiness as outdated, irrelevant, or even simple; it is likely more involved than we anticipate and more rewarding than we can imagine. Leviticus 11-27 was originally written to provide Israel with specific instructions on how to maintain holiness in their lives, but those instructions that God gave were not arbitrary. However, when you start reading the listings of clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11, arbitrary seems to be the best explanation. On a surface level, there does not appear to be any rhyme or reason as to why certain things are given a clean or unclean status. The last few verses of Leviticus 11 explain that God does not want Israel to be defiled by unclean things, but still, the reason for what is clean and unclean is not revealed. Read Leviticus 11 several times, and hopefully, some of the repetitious and oddly familiar language in the text will cause your brain to start making some connections back to Genesis, particularly the Fall narrative in Genesis 3. It appears that God’s cursing of the serpent that took place in Genesis 3:14 is connected to the whole concept of clean and unclean. Genesis 3:14 reads, “So the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust. All the days of your life.” One scholar draws out the connections between Genesis 3 with Leviticus 11, and there are some surprising connections:

“First, the very theme of ‘eating and not eating’ is found both in Gen. 2–3 and Lev. 11. It is evident that the theme of ‘eating’ from the forbidden tree in Gen. 3 is developed in Lev. 11, where this time the number of prohibited items grows due to the fall. Thus more than a matter of diet appears to be intended. Indeed if Lev. 11 has Gen. 3 as its background, it may be that keeping the rules in Lev. 11 functions to remind the Israelites of the fall. Since the chapter lists what creatures ought or ought not to be eaten, the rules have the character of commandments similar to the one given in Gen. 2:16–17.2

It is starting to sound like God’s rationale behind uncleanness has a very clear purpose, to remind Israel of the Fall in Genesis 3. That which is unclean is associated with the serpent, whether its serpent-like features, what it eats, or how it moves across the ground. Animals that have similar character traits are deemed unclean. This is not a scientific listing in Leviticus 11 of what is healthy and unhealthy; it’s a theologically linked listing. The very nature of what was clean and unclean for Israelites was designed to remind them of sin and its ongoing effects and the need to live holy lives. Thankfully, and with a sigh of relief, Christians are not bound to the OT food laws. However, we are bound to the principle of holiness that underlies those original food laws. “The New Testament does employ the language of clean and unclean to refer to moral behavior; thus the principle of separation from what is unclean still stands.”3 Paul highlights this in 2 Corinthians 6:17, where he is alluding to Leviticus 11. He is calling his readers to separate themselves from sinfulness, which, to him, has a direct connection to what is clean and unclean from the OT dietary laws. Like Israel, the Church also must be holy and distinct from the world.  Who would have thought that the dietary laws in Leviticus 11 could remind us of our sin nature and the need to pursue holiness in our daily lives? Leviticus is more important than you think.  

The need for holiness reaches a crescendo in chapter 16. Within this chapter, we find a High Holy day called the Day of Atonement. The sacrifices and offerings described thus far in Leviticus were insufficient to cleanse all the defilements from the people. Therefore, God instituted a yearly sacrifice to cleanse everything else that was not covered by a sacrifice or accidentally missed (cf. Heb.9:7). While the Day of Atonement cleansed the Tabernacle, ensuring that the sacrifices and offerings for the upcoming year would be effective, the priests and people also needed cleansing. Two goats provided the cleansing on the Day of Atonement. The first goat was sacrificed, and its blood was sprinkled upon the Ark of the Covenant. This would appease the wrath of God created by the people’s sin for another year. The second goat was called the “scapegoat.”4 The high priest would place his hands on the goat’s head and confess the sins of the people over it; the goat was taken out into the wilderness and released, symbolizing that the people were forgiven for another year. Every year, this holy day was observed, and every year, both the priests and people are reminded that they must observe this holy day next year. The insufficient nature of the Day of Atonement was designed to elicit a response of hope and anticipation for a coming Messiah who would make a perfect sacrifice on their behalf. Christ would offer up Himself as the once and for all sacrifice, thereby retiring the old sacrificial system. The system was never designed to completely atone for sin; only Christ’s sacrifice can completely atone for sin and appease the wrath of God.    

While the remaining chapters of Leviticus (17-26) continue the lifestyle holiness code for Israel, the chapters refine the need for man to be in fellowship with his brother. It would appear then that Leviticus is the original, extended edition of loving God (1-16) and loving others (17-26). Combining Leviticus with Jesus’ statement in Matthew 22:37-39 shows the connection:

“…You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Leviticus 1-16

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 17-27

Should I say it again? I think we need to hear it one more time. Leviticus is more important than you think.