Leviticus: How to Not Die Worshiping God
What do Jimmy's poetry, 'The Princess Diaries' and a handbook on “how to not die worshiping God” all have in common? I don't know yet, I haven't listened to this episode. I do know it has something to do with Leviticus. Saw it in the title. #nailedit
Tagline for Leviticus: "How to Not Die Worshiping God"
Notice: The opening verse of Leviticus says Moses was outside the tent of meeting. But then in Numbers, Moses was inside the tent! Leviticus is the rule book for how to worship our holy God properly.
Who wrote Leviticus? Moses
What genre? Law with some history sprinkled in
Where is Leviticus located in the Bible? It’s the third book!
Why read Leviticus?
For Kelly, it brought out the seriousness of sin. Once we’ve heard the Gospel so many times, we may start to tune out the basics such as sin is bad. Yeah, we all have sin. Yada, yada.
But really! We all have sin! And then Leviticus goes a step further and teaches us the seriousness of even our accidental sins! There is no free pass for our sinful nature in the eyes of our holy God. Even our accidental sins offend God.
Jimmy loves the bloody stuff. 🩸What he means is, you cannot read Leviticus without being confronted by the horrors that our sin causes. Animal sacrifices were required to keep our relationship with God pure. This is very jarring to us who live in a very sanitized environment. But there’s no such thing as a bloodless redemption. No such thing as a bloodless Gospel. It costs something for us to be reconciled to God. Without Leviticus, we miss the need for Christ’s redemptive blood on the cross!
What are the challenges to reading the book of Leviticus?
The bloody stuff. Yeah, we appreciate it. But it can also make it a super challenging read. Again, it can be very jarring thinking about how bloody, smelly, and noisy the Tabernacle was!
Another thing that can hang us up (unless you’re a lawyer) is all of the laws! 🧑⚖️ These laws are so foreign to our modern culture that it can be really hard to engage with them.
If Jesus already replaced the Old Testament law, why do we need to read Leviticus? This question exposes one of the most common problems regarding Bible reading: We read the Bible with a self-focused mindset. What will I get out of it? What does this have to do with me? But we don’t read the Bible for ourselves! We read the Bible to learn about God. Leviticus teaches us about God’s nature, how He keeps people accountable, and how He operates.
Reading our Bibles takes effort and energy. We love to be spoon-fed. But to develop a deeper relationship with God we get to dive into God’s Word ourselves! Like we said last week, treat this book like a mystery novel. Get out your magnifying glass and be a detective looking for what you can learn about God! 🔍
These laws required a lot from the Israelites to be able to come near to God. How much more Jesus did so that we can come all the way to God! When we assess the work of Christ’s perfect life followed by His sacrificial death, through the lens of the Levitical law, our salvation has an even richer depth! This brings us back to our original tagline: How not to die while worshiping God. God is so holy. He loves us so much that He gave His people Leviticus so that they’d know how to have a relationship with Him. No guesswork. No hoping He’s in a good mood (unlike many of the pagan gods). God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Sin can’t be near God. But He consistently provides clear ways for us to have a relationship with Him.
Animal sacrifices are a shadow of things to come.
Hebrews 10:1-4 says, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
The animal sacrifices taking place for thousands of years weren’t the solution to the problem of sin. They were a temporary solution. The final solution came when the perfect sacrifice of Jesus was made on Mount Calvary.
Read Leviticus to better understand the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Application questions:
WheWhen was the last time you read Leviticus?
What stood out to you in this podcast episode? What questions are you wondering about the book of Leviticus? (Great! Now go read it!)
How does reading Leviticus impact how you think about Christ’s sacrifice on the cross?
Compare and contrast the sacrifices of the Old Testament with Christ’s sacrifice in the New Testament.
Love these application questions? You gotta check out the Clearly One-Pager!
Want to ask us a question? Email question@clearlypodcast.com.
Our Recommendations:
👀 Watching: Avoiding the Book of Leviticus? by the BibleProject
✝️ Sermon: We Pursue Holiness by Jimmy Needham
📖 Reading:
When you buy something through these links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Wish you could ask questions in real time? Our Patreon partners join us live for every recording! PLUS you get the Genesis Clearly One-Pager for free!