If you’ve spent any time around Christians, or are yourself a Christian, you’ve probably heard the desperate and panicked cry of someone trying to read their Bible in a year. They “fell off the wagon” once they stumbled into the book of Leviticus. They’re way behind their reading plan now. There’s no hope of catching back up—not if it means trekking through the territory of Leviticus.
Now, we certainly don’t want to guilt or shame any Christians who are struggling to read their Bibles (Bibles.net exists to help you when you struggle!). We want to help keep this moan from ever arising from your own heart as you see the value of this precious book of the Bible and God’s kindness in giving it to us!
Granted, Leviticus is a foreign book to us. It is a hard book to read. But, if “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV), then God gave us the book of Leviticus so that we may be able to walk in the good works he has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). We need to rethink how we understand this book.
Leviticus answers the question, “How can sinful people live with their holy God?” If you remember, back in Genesis, the world fell into sin through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Sin is pervasive, infecting everything and everyone. If we want to have fellowship with God, we must be “like” God. We must be holy (morally pure). God requires holiness of his people because he, himself, is holy. God’s holiness is his wholeness, his complete integrity, his moral perfection, his utter uniqueness, his set-apart-ness from everything that isn’t him. Without sharing in his holiness, God’s people can’t be with God.
Therefore, Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue . . . holiness—without it no one will see the Lord” (CSB). In Leviticus, God says, “For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy . . . For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45 CSB). But the Israelites’ problem (and our problem!) is that we aren’t holy. So, what do we do?
Leviticus shows how our holy God made it possible to dwell with his unholy people in the past: through the sacrificial system.
Laws and sacrifices, though they seem cumbersome to us, maintained God’s presence among his people. If you’ll remember, humans weren’t allowed into God’s presence after Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden. The laws in Leviticus, then, were a provision and gift from God that allowed his people to live with him. The sacrifices atoned for the sins of the people. In Leviticus 17:11, God reminds us he provided atonement for his people.
Of course, animal sacrifices couldn’t fully and finally atone for sin—nor were they meant to (Hebrews 10:4-10). It was God who granted atonement, when those who trust him believed in the sacrifice he provided. The sacrificial system was intended to prepare us to understand how God would finally save and cleanse us from sin.
Leviticus gets us ready to see how God, in Jesus Christ, would atone for his people to make us holy and bring us into a loving relationship with God. God the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins—so perfect that it fulfilled the need for the sacrifices we see in Leviticus. Jesus Christ willingly laid down his life as the once for all sacrifice for God’s people (Hebrews 10:10) to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). Not only does Jesus identify as the sacrifice to which all the Old Testament sacrifices point, but he also identifies himself in the New Testament as our Great High Priest—the only perfect mediator between God and man (Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 9:11-12; 1 Timothy 2:5).
God, in Jesus Christ, offers you life and fellowship with him if you trust in the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins. Read Leviticus listening to what God asked of Israel, and looking for what God’s law reveals about his character.
Finally, here’s a tip—read the letter to the Hebrews from the New Testament every so often as you read Leviticus. You may have noticed a bunch of references to Hebrews sprinkled throughout this introduction. Hebrews is where we find the clearest explanation of how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law and is the full and final redemption to which the law pointed. Reading these biblical books together will illuminate your understanding of Leviticus and may inspire you to read Leviticus with new joy and wonder.