Leviticus 1

The burnt offering in Leviticus 1 - is the main offering in the Jewish sacrificial system.  It's a sacrifice of ATONEMENT.  The fire symbolizes the wrath of God and it is a penal (penalty) substitutionary atonement just like Jesus' death on the cross was.   Pretty amazing stuff and it's only the beginning!

A follow-up to a request from sister Andrea for the worldview comparison chart from Wednesday night (originally from Tim Chester, "Exodus for You")

Leviticus 8

Greetings all from Grand Rapids.   As we get into the weeds of Leviticus, sometimes the details are overwhelming, and you may have questions about individual verses.  A good reference to check our thoughts against is the Puritan pastor, Matthew Henry, who has done a commentary on the whole Bible.  While it is not infallible and it is certainly a product of his time (1662-1714), it is still a very pastoral and helpful reference and it’s free on the web.  If you would like to see some of the typology in our passage today or on other days explained, you might take a peek at his work.  

The Blue Letter Bible, which is an excellent resource and app, has its commentary on its website.

Leviticus 11–15

These are tough chapters because it is hard to see their relevance to our modern condition and the new covenant.  

One author says about them:
“Chapters 11 to 15 in Leviticus are perhaps the least attractive in the whole Bible. To the modern reader, there is much in them that is meaningless and repulsive.”

Kevin DeYoung helpfully summarizes them this way:
“Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 go together and there’s kind of a rhythm about 11 things that go in you, 12 things that come out of you, 13 and 14 things that are on you, and then chapter 15 is things that come out of you.”

You can read or hear a sermon about them 12-15 here (and see how he applies them to his congregation)

He also has one on Leviticus 11, which helpfully introduces them.

This sermon, “food and feasting” might be the more helpful of the two, but both are helpful

The conclusion of this sermon:
“But that’s why these rules were here. The set-apartness was not meant to feed their pride, but to mirror God’s holiness. To be holy was to be whole. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say they could eat what God could eat. Think about the sacrifices that they offered. The kinds of animals that God could eat, of course, He didn’t need food, He didn’t really eat them, but the ones God could eat, they could eat, because they were to be holy like God was holy.

It’s not about pride, it’s not about morals, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. It’s about saying, God, You are holy and You’ve delivered me by Your grace, so I will live this life of grateful obedience.

Which leads then to our final question. Hopefully, some payoff for you enduring. How do these laws apply to the Christian today? How do these food laws apply to the Christian today?

Well, we need to establish that the New Testament is absolutely clear. There are lots of difficult questions about how the law applies, but on this question, the New Testament is absolutely clear: these food laws are no longer binding. Mark 7:19. Mark notes parenthetically, “Thus Jesus declared all foods clean.” 1 Corinthians 10:23 teaches that all foods are open to us. We must consider, however, the weaker brothers and eat and drink to the glory of God. In Acts 10, you may recall that Peter is on the housetop praying. He sees a vision of a sheet with all kinds of animals, and a voice says, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat,” and Peter says, “What in the world? I’ve never done that in my whole life, all of these delicious piggy animals. I can’t eat them.” And God says, “What God has made clean do not call common.”

The story is given three times in Acts. The only other story given three times in Acts is Paul’s conversion, so that tells you something about how important this story was. The change of the food laws was bound to be one of the biggest controversies in the Church, as it went from almost exclusively a Jewish sect to one with Jews and Gentiles. So Luke makes sure in Acts to tell the story three times – Hey, I want you Christians to get it. Peter got a vision. He can eat, you can eat, all the animals.

1 Timothy 4 – all foods are clean because nothing God created is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving and sanctified by the Word of God in prayer. So the New Testament is abundantly, repetitively clear that these food laws are no longer binding on the Christian.

So then what is the point? Just a historical curiosity? Two points, as we close.

First, what do these teach the Christian? First, these laws show us how concerned God is for holiness in every area of life, in the ordinary things and down to the smallest details.

I referred to this story already from Mark chapter 7. Jesus says 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. Now he’s thinking about food laws, He’s not thinking about drugs and all sorts of different things that may devastate our body. He’s thinking about this Jewish context of foods and animals that you can eat. Jesus says it’s not what goes in that makes you unclean, it’s what comes out. He said to them, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?” It’s kind of graphic there, Jesus, but He says, “How could that really make you unclean? It goes in and it goes out.” “Thus, He declared all foods clean. And He said what comes out of a person is what defiles him, for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile a person.”

See what Jesus is doing? He’s deliberately taking the Levitical category of defilement, of uncleanness, but He transposes it away from this ceremonial ritual key to one that is exclusively moral. And actually the ritual one, as odd as it seems, would be easier. It’s preferable. It would be easier. If you could just walk out of here, what does it mean to be a good Christian? Well, you’ve got a list. Even if it’s a long list, I have a list of 14 animals I can eat and 24 animals I can’t eat. Woo, go.

But Jesus says, no, that’s not going to do it. You need to pay attention to what comes out, not of your stomach. Don’t be people living for your stomach, but for your heart.

Some of us think, well, if I just go to church, I don’t commit any of the really nasty, obvious sins, then I've got this Christianity thing down. Just give me a list.

But God is concerned about all of life. What you watch, how you speak, how you fill out your taxes, what you do with your money, whether you shade the truth, how you respond when sinned against, what you do with your phone, and how you talk to people. God still wants us to be holy. God still wants us to be set apart. But Jesus says what matters to me is not that you have a different stomach; that’s easy. What matters to me is that you have a different heart; that’s hard.

So these rules show us God’s abiding concern for holiness, not just in some big picture, but down to the very details of your life. When you’re scrolling through your phone and you see one of those headlines that you know is going to just lead you into temptation, no place good, and what do you do there?

Then second. The points of these food laws. Feasting on Jesus is the only meal that can make you right with God. See, the Old Testament taught you had to refrain from certain kinds of eating if you were to stay clean. The New Testament turns it on its head and says you need to partake in a certain kind of eating if you are to get clean. You see the difference? Old Testament, you’ll be clean if you don’t eat something. New Testament, if you want to be clean, you need to eat. What do you need to eat? You need to eat and feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is more relevant than we might think, because we certainly live in a time, in fact, you could argue that all times and all places are like this, we are very focused on food, some of us very much so. We think a lot about food. Some of us have a love relationship, some of us a hate relationship, and most of us a love/hate relationship with food.

And our world, though it may think it’s miles away from Leviticus, our world reinforces salvation by food, either salvation by dieting, or salvation by partying, or salvation by gluttony. And Jesus comes along and says, “You know what? True salvation doesn’t actually come by fasting. True salvation comes by feasting, feasting on the body crucified for you, on His blood shed for you.”

In almost any culture, including our own, there are just as many taboos and requirements as the Jews ever had, but they don’t work. You can’t get to heaven with a colon cleanse. You won’t be closer to God because you are closer to your ideal body mass index. You won’t have more of the Holy Spirit because you have less of your waist. Yes, of course, there’s health, and we attend to our bodies. I don’t want any of the doctors, I agree, exercise, eat healthy, do… But they are often idols of fitness, of diet, of health, and like every idol, you know it’s an idol when it’s a cruel deity, because false gods are always cruel to you. Only the true God really loves you. So if fitness, if diet, if health are your deities, they will let you down. They will never let up. They are cruel masters, cruel mistresses, and Jesus says, “Come to Me. My burden is easy. My yoke is light.”

John 6. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood… Blood, flesh, a dead man. Everything that should have made you unclean. He was the very definition of defilement, and then He says, “Don’t just come near Me, don’t just touch Me, feast on Me and I will raise you up on the last day, for My flesh is true food, My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”

Leviticus 16

From the article: The Day of Atonement and Our Need for a High Priest by Michael Morales

While the first goat, the goat “for the LORD,” represented a blameless substitute by which Israel might be reconciled to God, cleansing God’s house with atoning blood, the second one, as “the scapegoat,” represented the judgment Israel deserved and would have endured apart from a blameless substitute. The high priest would lay both hands—a different gesture from the previous hand-laying rite of identification—upon the head of the scapegoat and confess all the sins and rebellions of Israel over it, symbolically transferring the heavy load of the people’s many transgressions and their severe guilt to the animal. Then, continuing the eastward trajectory away from God’s presence that had stopped at the altar, the scapegoat would be driven out deep into the uninhabitable wilderness, bearing away all the iniquities of Israel (16:21-22)—indeed, removing their transgressions “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). Having borne the sins of Israel, the scapegoat’s ensuing judgment (exile away from God) was endured unmistakably in place of Israel. Although there is some overlap in the functions of each goat (as comprising one sin offering together), it may not be too simplistic to say that through the first goat God’s wrath was propitiated—satisfied—by sacrifice, the blood of atonement cleansing his dwelling and people from the uncleanness of their sins, and through the second goat Israel’s sins were expiated, removed far away from them. 
…In the Day of Atonement’s “blameless” animals, there was thus a shadow of Jesus’ active obedience, his fulfillment of the Law as federal head of his people, even his full-hearted love for the Father. In the sacrifice of the goat for the LORD and in the exile of the scapegoat, we see a dim silhouette of Jesus’ passive obedience as our sin-bearer, loaded down with our transgressions, guilt, and shame, judged and exiled with the torments of hell for our sakes.  Even the sacrificial system of ancient Israel, including its Day of Atonement, though founded upon the doctrine of vicarious substitution in its use of animals and blood, proved insufficient to allay the consciences of guilty sinners who had come to grasp something of the gravity of their filthy rags before the awesome, holy, and Sovereign LORD (Heb. 10:1-4).

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Even though reading through Leviticus seems like a slog at times, it greatly reveals my sinfulness before a holy God. But at the same time, because it highlights God’s holiness, the implication of God’s love drives me to tears when considering the depths Christ went to atone for my sins. Amazing love how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me?

Leviticus 17–18

Sometimes Christians struggle to see how the OT law's principles apply today.  While the civil and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ, there is a principle we talk about called "General Equity" of the Old Testament law, which still applies.  This was defined in our Baptist confession (1689 19:4) this way:
"To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution; their general equity only being of moral use."

In simple terms, the laws that were the civil or ceremonial "law of the land" in Israel under the Old Covenant do have abiding value by the moral principles they establish and which continue to be useful and applicable. Often, this morality is expressed in contracted or expanded forms in the New Testament as well. For example, the standards for sexual morality in Leviticus 18 and 19 are upheld and also expressed in the New Testament (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rom. 1:24-27).  But other ceremonial laws, like the kosher food requirements and civil laws and their penalties, are no longer in effect.  With the kosher laws, they are no longer in effect because Jesus declares all foods clean in Mark, the tearing of the temple veil at the cross (which signalled the end of temple worship and animal sacrifices etc.) and the example of Peter and the sheet with animals he's commanded to eat in Acts.  Where it gets a bit more complicated is the civil law penalties that were applied in the Old Testament to breaking the Moral Law (as summarized in the 10 commandments).  While the moral law of honoring the Lord's Day is still something confessional Reformed Baptists believe in the New Covenant and is upheld by NT passages like Hebrews 4:9, we do not execute the judicial penalty found in the Old Covenant civil law (Exodus 35:2) that was attributed to breaking it (I.e. death!).  But the morality of the Lord's Day, as it's the fourth commandment, is still something we believe we ought to uphold, which is why pastors and deacons encourage people not to neglect public worship.  We have additional instruction in the New Covenant, which affirms this in Hebrews 10:24f, which urges the "gathering" of God's people in worship and warns of the consequences of neglecting worship.  But there is no judicial earthly penalty attached, just warnings of ultimate divine justice.  Zach has touched on these principles of General Equity in his preaching on the second part of Exodus.  And we even see it in our modern society.  The idea of liability in modern Canadian law is based on Old Testament civil law.  Even though the civil law of Israel has expired, the moral principle of liability applies - i.e. if you have a vicious dog that you do not restrain and he or she causes harm, you can be sued.  Or negligence - same thing.  While we don't have laws requiring a parapet around the top of our house (as is required in the civil law of Deut. 22:8), we do have building codes that result in penalties if they are not followed and especially if they cause harm to others.   Sadly, the biblical principles of truth and even these principles of general equity that were in Canadian law for years (and British Common law before it) increasingly seem to be being redefined or removed in our modern society.  But viewed properly God's law was designed for our good and society's good.  

All of what I'm talking about here is part of what we call the "tripartite view of the law" that the civil and ceremonial details of OT law have "expired" as the confession states but that the moral law (which was unlike the civil and ceremonial aspects written in stone by the finger of God Himself) continue to have moral authority and applicability to Christians living today.  While this tripartite view may be controversial today in contemporary Baptist circles, it has been upheld by Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans etc. throughout their history from their foundational documents and confessions of faith and by other Christians back to New Testament times.

Reading Heb 9:13-14 with Lev 21-22 provides us with a fuller understanding of Christ’s priestly atonement.

Those of you who want to do a deep dive into Leviticus, I highly recommend this book:

Leviticus 23

The “feasts” chapter.  This chapter is helpful in understanding the rhythm of worship in the Jewish calendar.   But more than that, it communicated to the Jewish people the ever-present nature of God‘s dwelling with them. 

This article has a simple summary of each of these feasts and some of their New Testament connections.  For me, the most fascinating one was the Feast of Trumpets, designed to remind the people of the presence of God in an audible way.

Please note, I do not believe in observing Lent (which this article was written for), but there are more liturgical traditions that do.

What I found most interesting in today’s chapter is how the Sabbath is observed in all the festivals. It makes me think that resting in the Lord truly helps us to worship Him properly and remember His goodness.

Leviticus 27  

So this chapter looks a little weird on first glance. t's seven sets of instructions on vows.  But it seems a bit random at first.  To our Western eyes, the valuations of human beings might be confusing or even upsetting.  Here's an excerpt from an excellent sermon by Kevin DeYoung that helps delve into this a bit:

"....This chapter gives the valuations. For men, from 5 shekels, 20, 50, 15, depending on how old you are. For females, 3 shekels, 10, 30, 10. This is not quantifying someone’s worth as a person but simply in an agricultural economy, these figures were representative of normal productive capability. In an agricultural society like that, strength and brawn were what mattered most and so men could generally do more work than women. It’s not valuing women less. In fact, you notice that a woman in the prime of her life is valued at 30 shekels, which is more than the valuation for men at any age except for men in the prime of their life. So this is simply reflective of productive capability in an agrarian society. This was the most basic vow. You dedicate either yourself or someone else to the Lord.

Now what you wouldn’t realize is that these figures are really quite high. People in biblical times might have earned the equivalent of a shekel per month, so to have a valuation all the way up to 50 shekels, 50 months, 4 years, and 2-1/2 years shekels or 30 months for women in their prime, is quite a high valuation. So you’ve got to think twice before you make this vow. You are promising quite a bit of your annual income, or in some cases, many years of your income unto the Lord..."

If you'd like to listen to or read the rest of the sermon, you can get it here.