Should Christians Read Leviticus Today?
You’ve probably heard horror stories about the book called Leviticus in the Bible. How it outlines not eating shrimp, slitting goats throats, and kicking unclean people out of the community. Is this book of any use for Christians today?
To show you I think it is, I want to do two things. One, equip you to understand it. Two, show you a few things I learned while reading it.
Context is key
If you attempt to read any book, much less Leviticus, without a proper understanding of the context surrounding it, it will be like getting dropped into the Atlanta interstate system without a GPS. You will not only be lost but if you make it out alive you’ll leave and never return.
Let’s make sense of what surrounds this book:
Leviticus is the third of the five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). There is a story sequence to the Bible that we can often miss when we don’t read the Bible chronologically. In Genesis, God creates everything and has right relationship with humans. Humans choose to love creation over their creator, turning their back on God. The world is fractured and God begins the process of redeeming what went wrong. Quite quickly we see the world turn from peaceful to chaotic. God created and it was good. Man killed. God told the truth and longed for humans to live in the truth. Man lies. At the close of Genesis God chooses a man, Abraham, and makes a covenant with him.
In Exodus, the next book, the story continues. God’s people are enslaved in Egypt for many years. God raises up a man to free them and they begin their wilderness journey. God’s people struggle to trust Him despite His mighty works and proven faithfulness. From Egypt, through the Red Sea, God leads his people to the bottom of Mount Sinai. God says He will not only be the God of His people, but He will dwell with them. The tabernacle is built, the place where the Holy God will dwell among them.
In the book of Numbers (the 4th book) we see God’s people move from Mount Sinai to the promised land. What is in-between? The book of Leviticus. It is a collection of what God told Moses about what must be done for a Holy God to live with an unholy people. The rules related to the tabernacle, the rituals, the events… all have their meaning wrapped up in this central theme: God is Holy.
Leviticus is a difficult book to understand for many of us. But if you remember that it’s a set of rules, events, and laws relating to the newly built tabernacle, you will make it through. It’s answering the question “How does a holy God live with unholy people?” He calls them to be holy, as He is holy. And he, through the sacrifices of animals, clears their sin.
Why Should We Read This Book?
We should read Leviticus because the New Testament assumes you know it. These events (specifically the passover and the idea of sacrifices) are interwoven into the early New Testament culture. A basic understanding of the book will help give greater context and weight to some of the stories/verses in the New Testament. For example:
Leviticus 13 outlines that people with leprosy must live outside of the camp. Not only this, but if someone touches someone with leprosy they themselves become unclean. Does this not give greater weight and meaning to the fact that Jesus in Mark 1:40, instead of simply proclaiming a leper clean, reached out to touch him to cleanse him?
This helps us see: Jesus draws near to the outcast, the dirty, those who would have felt shamed by the religious elite. We wouldn’t see that if we didn’t have any understanding of Leviticus.
Hebrews 9:11-14: “So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood — not the blood of goats and calves — he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.”
If you have an understanding of the way God removed the sin from people in the Old Testament so that His presence could continue to dwell among them, you see how it was a shadow to what Jesus would do. In Leviticus people would place their hands on the heads of goats and lambs. In essence, the sins they committed would be transferred to the unblemished lamb, who did nothing wrong, which would then be killed so the person could go free. The lamb got what the person deserved. This is why the New Testament will refer to Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb. Our sins on the cross were transferred to Him and He took our punishment so we could dwell peacefully with God.
These are just a few examples.
When Should we not read Leviticus?
My pastoral advice for those contemplating reading Leviticus would be this: there are seasons in our lives where we have the time to slog through it and gain it’s blessings, and there are seasons in our lives where we won’t. We shouldn’t feel guilty if we’ve never read it. It is far more important that you have consistent, daily time with God. If reading Leviticus hinders that, don’t read it right now.
A helpful rule: If it’s not helping you connect with God, move on.
Things I learned
Reading Leviticus is hard. I read it over a week and was able to see big themes, which is what is most important. Leave the hundreds of small and specific details to the scholars.
Mix other parts of the Bible with your Leviticus reading.
I became more aware of how serious my sin is.
I became more aware of how Holy God is.
It made me want to treat my “small” sins as serious sins.
It helped me see more beauty in the Gospel. That Christ is not only the perfect high priest, but also the sacrifice.
It reminded me of the importance of church. Many of the events outlined in Leviticus are to help God’s people remember things they easily forgot in the book of Exodus. (That God is faithful, trustworthy, that He forgives sin). We still are prone to forget these things. For us, we set aside a day each week to remember. The church helps us in that.
Slogging through Leviticus taught me that not every moment of Bible reading feels “supernatural”. I often would finish reading and say… What do I do with this? But later, when I would read something in the New Testament, I would remember something in Leviticus that added more weight. Not all insights are known in the moment.
Treasuring the Word with you,
Josh.
