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Leviticus Explained
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The book of Leviticus in a single episode. Bodie and Joey unpack the essential details of Exodus, where it falls on the storyline, the structure of the book, major themes in ideas, what Exodus teaches us about God, what it offers our Christian lives, and a couple of our favorite details to equip and inspire you to read, study, and love this amazing third book of the Bible.
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Every time we gather as the church and partake in communion, at the Lord's table, what do we celebrate?
The body of Jesus as shown by the bread and the blood of Jesus as signified by the cup, and we discovered that the cup is the blood of the new covenant in Christ, for the remission of sins. And so you see the book of Leviticus wonderfully gives to us the explanations for our Christian dependence on God and the preciousness of the blood and why we are to continue to be holy and to live holy lives for God.
Hello and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible Podcast where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. I am Bodie Quirk from YouCanLearnthBible.com here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. Joey, my man, how are you doing today?
Brother Bodie. I'm doing great, my dear friend. I am blessed to be doing another book of the Bible with you, as we've been gone this journey, it's been so awesome to dive into the scriptures together, discuss all of the different insights that are in these books. And, today we're hitting a book that I don't think people realize how much treasure chest of wealth and knowledge is in this book, and why it's important and what book are we hitting today, Bodie?
I
what is this
So we are in episode nine and so, uh, we are gonna cover Leviticus today. So the title is Leviticus Explained. So if we can achieve that goal today, Joey, I hope that people will give this book another shot. This book seems to be where Bible in a year programs go to die. And we don't want that to be the case for you.
We want you to go deeper into this book, but it is a little bit different. We do need to approach it differently. So this episode is a seven part framework to equip and to inspire you to not just read or just kind of endure Leviticus as sometimes people talk about it, but to delight in it and to see things that you've never seen. That's our goal today as we go for this seven part framework, a Leviticus explained.
So before we get into that, I'm gonna have Joey talk about the framework we're gonna go through. But just a reminder, if you're listening to this on your podcast app, you can also watch on YouTube. We do have some slides that we use, but again, we always try and make, the audio primary, so you never need to, this is an add-on for those of you who do want to see some of the things that we're using, but what we wanna do today is we wanna unpack Leviticus.
So Leviticus explained, and I feel like if we can walk people through this framework, Joey, we're gonna give them a better shot than sometimes they might have if they just read through the Bible. Cause I think people get to it and they don't know what to do with it because we have narrative in Genesis and Exodus, but we don't have much narrative in Leviticus.
So what we wanna do is we wanna start with this framework, and I'm gonna let Joey start. I'll jump in, but we wanna talk about just the essentials. So if somebody came to you again, I always like imagining we got a short time to give a lot of value. What is Leviticus, Joey? Tell me some essential details before we get into, where it fits in the story.
Well, Leviticus is a book that draws us into the holiness of God, and it's a standstill book because as the children of Israel have left Egypt. they're now wandering in the wilderness.
What we see about Leviticus is that, Egypt hasn't necessarily left the people of God. And so there is a great need for us to understand God's instructions in this.
And so, again, this is another one, one of the books of the first five books of the Bible. So they're all written by Moses, the first five. The Torah or the Pentateuch. We're in the wilderness and we're gonna focus on offerings today, on laws giving, that help God's people be holy and understand the need for atonement, the blood.
We're gonna understand God's covenant relationship with us again and our call to worship him in a manner that glorifies him. And, this is really given right at the base of Mount Sinai where Moses received the 10 Commandments. And so Leviticus is a zoom in. on helping us to see the holiness of God, that we might be a holy people for God. That's what is essential about this book.
Yeah. You're gonna hear the word holiness a lot in this episode, and because this is kind of the main theme, right? If we gave Genesis the main theme, it was beginnings. If we gave Exodus the main theme as we did in the prior episodes, that would be deliverance. And so now Joey said we're, there's not much narrative in this story, but that doesn't mean there's not enough value.
There is beauty in this book that we hope to shine a light on today, but it's worship and instructions are really some of the key parts of holiness, aren't they, Joe, that Leviticus really wants us to see. So the audience is still God's covenant people, but I think people feel like, well that's the old covenant.
It's the Old Testament. We don't need to read it anymore cuz we're not gonna get any value of it cuz it's not particularly for us. And I would guard you to say, let's see if we can get to the end of this episode. And then hopefully give you a framework to really go into this book. But those are some of the basics, but we're still in the story.
So Joey had said that we're, we haven't moved in the narrative at all. So if we move from right here, number two, where does Leviticus fit in the storyline? Joey just shared with it, so it's at the same place as Exodus. We're at the base of Mount Sinai, and so if we go here to the timeline that we have used,
we now, if we look right there, we see that all the books of the Torah. Are there during this time of the wilderness, but I would love to have Joey, if you would read the very first verses of Leviticus, because Leviticus, like you said, it's a kind of a pause and a zoom in. It's very instructional, but the first two verses just set us up for where the book is going. Would you mind just reading the first couple verses of Leviticus and then let's talk through some of the details again as we kind of unpack the book together.
Sure. So Leviticus opens up, and by the way, you might notice by the name Leviticus. It comes from that first four letters there, Levi. We're looking at the levies, we're looking at the priesthood. We're looking at God's command for his people to understand their priestly responsibility as a separated people for God.
So God says this in Leviticus one verse. It says the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall, and it says, you shall. Bring your offering of the livestock, of the herd and of the flock.
And if his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a mail without blemish and he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. And so just in those opening verses, you can see how specific, how detailed it is, and how we're immediately going into the way that God is giving regulations that are holy and set apart for his people right from the
Yes. Yeah. Thank you for completing the verse. I just had the beginning on here because what Joey just started, what? The door he just opened is a door into offerings, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and this is where I think people read these and it feels tedious. So Joey, let's now go back. Okay. So we know where the book takes place.
It takes place with the other books of the Torah, but this one doesn't have much narrative to it. But we do know that they have just recently left Exodus. They were there for 400 years and they've only been here for a matter of months.
We don't know exactly. So this people has never needed or been able to regulate themself like so imagine like it's like a college kid that just has always had so much structure and they go to college and they have freedom. Sometimes that goes badly. And so God brings these regulations as for their good, for their blessing because this covenant is leading them to the land.
But they need to be prepared, don't they, Joey? So we like the idea of calling Leviticus divine instructions after the Exodus. See, I think people get frustrated with Leviticus cuz they want narrative and there isn't much in there. What we have is divine instructions after the Exodus.
But we have the need for preparation. So what we wanna do, knowing that they need to be prepared, and now we know where they are. Let's talk about the book itself. But the majority of the episode really wanna talk about why this matters to us today. But we're gonna get there. Okay, so we talked about the essentials, we talked about the storyline. Anything Joey, you wanna say before we get into the structure of the book?
Well, I would just say this. I mean, this is a really, a way to introduce the structure of the book is since this is a standstill moment for the people of God to understand how holy God is, and I, the Word holy is the word in Hebrew cadesh, and it's used about 80 times in this book alone.
And you know how in Psalm 46, verse 10, David says, be still, and know that I am God. Well, this book is to get us to stand still and to see how holy God is and therefore, where we need to be a holy people set apart for him.
And so the structures of this book, as you rightly said, Bodie are not so much narrative, although there are a few really good narratives in this book, but it's gonna keep driving us to see the holiness of God. And so as we dive into this structure number 3,
you'll notice that there's a big section, right, Bodie, in the first 15 chapters, we call that Levitical Laws, where there's regulations for God's people, the priests, the Levites, remember Moses and Aaron were priests of the priestly tribe of Levi, so to speak. The offerings, for the priesthood to do and the "cleanness" laws.
Chapter 16 is a standalone chapter for the highest holy day among the Jewish people, which is Yom Kippur. It means Day of Atonement, and it happened once a year, every year as an offering for the people. Chapter 17. To 25 are all about our holy conduct. Getting into things like legality, moral laws, sexual laws, communal laws.
Chapters 26 and 27 are also standalone chapters. So you have a covenant of blessings and judgment and you have those additional laws on persons and property. So really when you look at the big picture of the structure, we have a huge section in the beginning, one key chapter on atonement, another big section on holy conduct, and then two singular chapters, that are about those additional laws with the covenant of God's people.
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And before we leave this, because if you know kind of where the breaks are and really where to focus, I think that's gonna help your success and your enjoyment of Leviticus. So before we leave the structure, here's just a one level deeper within the two major blocks. So this is not looking at just the standalone chapters.
You see chapter 16 on that left column, but there's the offerings Joey mentioned there's the formation of the priesthood. So for chapters one through seven are offer. Then there's the priesthood, then there's the laws. And this is where I think it feels tedious and like completely disconnected, like in a, it's in another world.
We don't care as much about you knowing the structure of the book as knowing its purpose in the larger story. And that's what we wanna really spend the rest of the episode talking about Chapter 16 is so crucial. It is going to have threads that go through the rest of the scriptures, but these are not necessarily completely irrelevant because what we have is a mixture of universal moral laws that do still apply and covenant loyalty regulations that are ceremonial, that were maybe just for the Israelites at this particular time.
But one of the ways that we can always know if something is still relevant to us is if it's repeated in the New Testament. So many times people will read all of this and say none of it is still relevant. That would be wrong. And so we want to help you see this in light of its whole. So I'm ready to basically start talking about how this can be useful, Joey, but do you have any other thoughts on just the structure of the book, before we get into kind of the major ideas and themes and concepts?
You know, the only other thing I would add is that, When you think about the children of Israel leaving the bondage of Egypt, they're no longer in bondage. So what are they in? Well, technically you can say they're in the wilderness. But God, notice is trying to relocate them back into the sanctuary. So you kind of go from bondage in Egypt into the sanctuary where things are holy God is showing them temple life or tabernacle life at this point, and he's teaching them about the need for offerings, sacrifices, and blood, and of course, how important are those themes when you get to the New Testament? Because these are the things that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
If we were to say, why did Jesus die on the cross for our sins? Well, the reason why is because there was a great pattern given to us by God, that's in the structure of this book. It's in the content of this book, and it shows us, once again, how holy God is as we see the breakdown of these chapters. So if you can kind of go into these chapters with the idea of learning God's Holiness, it's gonna really help set a precedent for us as we look at the themes that are here.
Well, and, it it, this is God's setting them up to be the best version of themselves if they follow and obey all of these commands. They are sexually pure, they are healthy, this is like a pattern of how to succeed for them, but for us, I think it can feel tedious. That's why we want you to really give this book a chance.
So, the structure Joey mentioned, is there one through 15, then there's 16, 17 through 25. And then there's these standalone chapters. Okay. So with that said, let's now talk about some of the themes, some of the ideas, and then we'll work our way into really how this particular book can benefit us as Christians.
So the next part of our framework. So number one is essential storyline structure. We're now at number four. What major biblical concepts do we find in Leviticus? Joey, start us off. cuz there's some good ones. You already kind of mentioned them in the structure previously.
think it's really important that we start with, let me go back to Genesis for a moment because in Genesis, in the garden, when mankind fell into sin, do we remember what God did to cover Adam and Eve? He had a sacrifice made. The Bible says that he took the skins of an animal and covered Adam and Eve, and there you have God's prescribed way of showing us the seriousness of sin.
that the wages of sin is death. But God is saying, you don't have to die. I'm going to allow other sacrificial things to die in your place. A and that seems on some hand be wow. Why? Why does there have to be any death? But remember, yeah. Why did there have to be any sin ? If there was no sin, then you have no death.
So Leviticus is building off the theme of the fall of man and showing us how to look at these offerings and sacrifices in light of man's failure, and so what we have is sacrificial offerings being prescribed by God for God's people to follow. We also have who is able to perform those sacrifices, and we have the sanctity of the priesthood.
So we discover that Aaron, who is Moses's right hand man and mouthpiece in Egypt, is now going to be the head of a priesthood, the holy priest, and he is going to be, the one who helps to give these ordinances and regulations, which are also forms of worship. We're gonna discover that worship isn't just in the offerings and the sacrifices, but in the way the people of God relate to each other and relate to God.
Of course, we've mentioned the Day of Atonement, which is a massive theme. In fact, did you know Bodie, that to this day, not only is the Day of Atonement, which is once a year, takes place in the fall time, around September, October is always when it's been in, in our calendar, but in the Jewish calendar, it's always toward the beginnings of this new year.
And one of the things that Day of Atonement gives is a way for all of God's people to be forgiven, even if they forgot to do a sacrifice or didn't confess their sin. And that is really important because when it gets fulfilled by Jesus, we discover Jesus cleanses us from all sin, past, present, and future, because of the work that he did for us.
And so it really just draws us into holiness, draws us into sanctification and a life that is pure before him. I wanna say one more thing and I'll turn it over to you, Bodie. I would say a key verse in this whole book is found in the book of Leviticus chapter 19 in verse two. And in Leviticus 19 verse two, it's where, and this is actually repeated.
By Jesus in a sense in the Sermon of the Mount to some extent, when he says, you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect and by Peter in his epistle. Because what it says in Leviticus 19 verse two is speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy, and that is really at the heart of what all this book is about and helping us to see how serious our sin is, which defiles us from the holiness of God.
Yeah, and I think one of the errors That was good. Yeah. One of the errors I think Christians make is we feel like Jesus has accomplished all of my holiness for me, and therefore I kind of don't have to do anything, which, would confuse the difference between justification and sanctification.
We don't merit, we don't, create holiness. But because we have been made holy, we are to live holy. And that is what is happening I believe here. This are the patterns for holiness. People who have been made holy don't go live like sinners. They live like people who have been made holy.
And so the New Testament is going to unpack, complete and show how Jesus fulfills all of this, all of the things that are now introduced here, the presence of God, the tabernacle, the offerings. Jesus is the final offering, but at this point in the story, the Book of Leviticus is very specific and God's holiness is not, something to be trifled with. And I've even heard that when a word in the Bible is repeated, it is repeated because there wasn't like an exclamation point in Hebrew. It's repeated for emphasis.
So when you hear Moses, Moses, when you hear Samuel Samuel, it's as if God is kind of shouting at them. But what's interesting is that the only thing that's repeated three times in the Bible, is the holy character of God in the Book of Revelation, and I believe probably in some of the prophets as well, where it says, holy, holy, holy.
It's as if to say, I can't put enough exclamation points on this particular feature of God's character to grasp it. And so that's why the angels surrounding God's throne sing, holy, holy, holy. It's because this particular characteristic of God is one of the great things that makes him God.
But it's also one of the things that he calls us into. As Joey just said, the command isn't be holy if you feel like it. The command is be holy for I am holy. Well, why would we care? Cuz we are united to him. He is our God and we are his people. So there's so many themes here. Anything that else that you'd like to say on just the themes and ideas of the book before we then apply them to how we, what we learn about God and how this applies to our Christian life?
Well just to, piggyback on what you just said about the holiness of God, let me say this. Not only is the word holy, the only word of all the attributes of God that are used as a Hebrew idiom three times this beautiful way of expressing, the fullness, as you said, the exclamation point about how holy God is.
But let me just remind you what the word means. Holiness means to be set apart, so unique, unparalleled, unlike anyone else. So what we're really seeing is that in heaven, everyone is in such awe and wonder about the creator that all of creation is kind of staring at the creator, so to speak, and is just in awe and wonder about how awesome he truly is
Endlessly. And the more they stare, the more they want to stare,
And day, day and night, moment by moment, even though they're in a timeless state in eternity, it's almost like we need all of eternity to express the greatness of God. And I think that is awesome to consider that our God is so holy and so powerful and he wants us to be a reflection of who he is, cuz remember, we were created in his image and in his likeness.
And that, takes us right into what we're gonna learn on number five here, right? About what do we learn about God himself in this? And I think I just kind of bridged that, segue. But, perhaps could I share one of my favorite passages about this? And I know that, this might be a part of my number seven, the favorite things, but I think it actually is really
They all kind of relate. It's just we wanna make sure we have 'em all in the episode. Sure. Go ahead, please.
So in Leviticus chapter 10, this is one of the narrative portions, and I love that the narrative portion is really directing our attention on God himself. And it's at the time where the tabernacle has been set up, the fire of God has come down from heaven, and, there is a burnt offering on the altar and the people of God are prostrate on the ground, including Moses and Aaron, but two sons, two pks, two priest kids, not pastors kids, but two priest kids named Nadab and Abihu, these two young boys, they go into the tabernacle and they offer a profane or strange offering.
Yep.
word profane means something that is not fit for holiness, it's profane profanity. It's where we get the word profanity from. It's unholy. And what they do is they basically take their sensors, which were these little instruments that priests used, and they did this offering with no regard to what was taking place around them.
The holiness of God and worship was taking place. They carelessly did something that God did not command them to do, and as a result, the Bible says that God struck them down dead that day. And you think, wow, what a harsh penalty. What a severe judgment, but why? Because they were not taking the holy things of God seriously.
And it says that after they were struck down dead, in Leviticus chapter 10 verse three, it says that Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke saying by those who come near me. I must be regarded as. And before all the people, I must be glorified. Notice the two musts in that statement. God must be regarded as holy and he must be glorified in the midst of God's people.
And it says that Aaron held his peace. He could not speak against those words, and he could not, complain against a God who demands holiness, and I think that's such a powerful word for us today, Bodie, could you imagine if people were being struck down dead, all over the country and all over the world today because they didn't give God the honor, holiness, and glory that was due as name?
I'll tell you what. This is given as an example for us to learn by, even though God doesn't do this all the time because of his great mercy, he doesn't do this, but he is still this same holy God who wants to be held in high reverence and honor.
And what's incredible. Yeah, no, in that section, just so, just so you guys remember, that is the narrative section in chapters eight through 10 where the priesthood is formed and we see the sons of Aaron flagrantly, dishonor, God and Joey, I'm really glad you paused to mention that, but it's so incredible to think.
that the son of God then has taken the same punishment that Nadab and Abihu were given for the entire world. Like the cross is the full Holy wrath of the Father on his son, who deserved not an ounce of it. So I just love that you paused to give us that picture because that is just awesome. It's so good, and it's interesting too because when we ask what it teaches us about God, yes, God is holy, God is set apart, but Peter first Peter.
Quoting, he quotes Leviticus 11, he quotes what you just shared. Be holy for I am holy. And because holiness benefits everybody, right? If everybody lives holy lives, the world would be transformed. It would be the most wonderful place to live. And that's why the hope of Heaven is for us. We get to live in a place of permanent holiness.
You know, people hear this phrase "an eye for an eye" and it usually gets quoted from this part of the Bible, like the Levitical code, right? An eye for an eye, cuz God has given specific regulations to this group because he has united his presence to this group for, at this point in history.
That's why these regulations are given. That's why some of them have been fulfilled and replaced in the new Covenant. But this phrase an " eye for an eye", people get this view that God is vengeful, and that, in the Old Testament, it says, well, if somebody takes your stuff, well, then you go and take theirs.
What people miss is the compassion in the intent of that original phrase. And eye for an eye doesn't mean if somebody gets you, you get 'em back. It means if somebody takes something of yours, you are protected against them responding and taking all of their stuff. It's not like you get to take the eye and I get to take your mom and your sister and your house. It was a way of protecting people. It wasn't a way of, giving an entitled vengeance to people, and getting back at them.
So we see the compassionate, the reason why I like that is because God cares about people, God cares about his holiness, but God cares about people. What, anything else that you would like to say on this one? What does Leviticus teach us about God? I mean, we could go on for hours, but I like that one. People mess that up and they think that it's, it's about vengeance. It's not. It's about protecting the weak and the innocent, and it's about people who are made in God's image being treated appropriately.
Bodie, that was so well said and such an important point to bring out. We as human beings have a hard time getting our proportions right. We can't always get our words out perfectly. We don't always have the right response to things. We don't always react to things rightly. And what you so beautifully said was that God actually knows the sinfulness of man, and he even gave us teachings and regulations to actually help us in the areas where we're already weak, where we're already going to be operating on a lower level of life.
He gave guidelines on how to not go too far on punishment and how to not treat, people wrongfully, whether they were servants or slaves or these different things. And people have a lot of misunderstandings. About this kind of stuff. And when you actually really understand that God is saying, you better keep this fair and just, you cannot answer somebody in the wrong way like that.
I, I love how you brought that out, and I think there's one more thing I would just say about, the nature of God is he's always holy and just, but he's merciful and compassionate. And in Leviticus 16, that singular chapter where we have on the day of Atonement, you realize that God takes every sin seriously, that he's so holy, and just that not a single sin cannot be accounted for.
But he's so merciful that he allows this sacrifice to take place once a year where the high priest goes into the holiest of holies inside the tabernacle and allows for a sacrifice that covers all the unconfessed and undealt with sins of the people. And the very last verse of chapter 16 says, "this shall be an everlasting statute for you to make atonement, for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year". See, God wants us covered so that sin is not defining us, but His holiness and His grace and his mercy, that is what we learn about our great God.
And I want people to get that. I want them to get that. Cuz those are the treasures hidden beneath the surface of this book. There's so much that we could say about God. But let's move on to this next question, which is, we really have already kind of started to talk about
What does Leviticus offer our Christian life? If you asked most Christians this, they would say, I have no idea. But I think some of the things, you've already sensed some of the great things, but for us as New Testament Christians, for one, it's helpful to know that Leviticus does have a complimentary book in the New Testament called The Book of Hebrews.
But we don't wanna you jump to Hebrews. We wanna make sure we understand what Hebrews set, I'm sorry, what Leviticus sets up for Hebrews to unpack about Jesus' fulfillment. And so I'll just answer really quick and then I'd love to hear your thoughts. I think Leviticus offers us a view into the holiness of God, a view into the greatness of God and the seriousness of sin.
Jesus doesn't change any of those things. Jesus' death takes on all of those things at one moment on the cross, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the love of God, and the weight of sin all meet at the cross. And so Jesus has saved us from more than we can ever, ever imagine.
First Peter says this, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you might read that in the New Testament and not understand that Peter is referencing Exodus and I just wanted to read this verse, Joey, and I love your thoughts on this and anything that Leviticus offers our Christian life.
Cuz remember in Exodus it says now, therefore God said to the people, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession among all people. For all the Earth is mine. And then he says this, you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Think about that beautiful phrase, A kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
That's what Peter is saying, we are because of Christ. So to link our lives to Christ is to inherit, the beautiful and the great call that we are priests. We are the presence of God here in a broken and unholy world. Joey, jump in number six. What does Leviticus for our Christian life,
Wow. Well, I want to not only jump in, I wanna just jump up and say, praise God for his great grace toward us from the cross of Calvary. You know, Bodie, you said so many beautiful things there, and one of the things that we learn from the book of Leviticus is that Jesus fulfills all of these sacrificial requirements that God's people had to see their sins covered.
You know, it's in Leviticus where you get the explanation of the power of the blood. In chapter 17, right after the Day of Atonement, we have Moses basically laying down for us. The understanding that life is in the blood. 17 verse 11, life of all flesh is in the blood. It says, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
You know, in the new covenant life for the Christian, we talk about the blood of Jesus. We talk about how we were once far away, but we've been brought near by the blood of Christ. In Ephesians chapter two, we talk about how Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, but why was his death on a cross able to take away sin? Well, because he shed his blood as a lamb, who was sacrificed.
Where do we get that idea from? Well, it goes all the way back to Leviticus. It was first foreshadowed in Genesis with the clothing of the skins on Adam and Eve. It was shown through the Passover in Exodus when the blood was on the doorposts of the house. And now we see the blood being explained to us in the book of Leviticus, and every time we gather as the church and partake in communion, at the Lord's table, what do we celebrate?
The body of Jesus as shown by the bread and the blood of Jesus as signified by the cup, and we discovered that the cup is the blood of the new covenant in Christ. For the remission of sins. And so you see the book of Leviticus wonderfully gives to us the explanations for our Christian dependence on God and the preciousness of the blood and why we are to continue to be holy and to live holy lives for God.
And there's so much for us to see that we need God to instruct us. We need God to guide us and to lead us. And without his instruction, we would just naturally go towards selfishness and sinfulness. But by God's instructions, we are clean. Because of his word that is spoken to us. The book of First Thessalonians, chapter four says, this is the will of God for you, your sanctification.
And then it tells us how we should abstain from sexual immorality and from so many of the passionate lusts that we have in our flesh. And so the Christian life is about holiness, and Leviticus shows us what it looked like back then, and now we have a new way of expressing holiness through Jesus Christ today.
Awesome. Great. It's so good. You know what, I had a thought too because, when we think about what does Leviticus offer our Christian life from a literary standpoint reading it is more of a slog. It's a little more difficult. I wanna challenge you to read Leviticus as a book about God, and maybe just pause on asking, what can I get out of it right now?
I think sometimes we have a short term mindset when we go to the scriptures. What can I get? I wanna get inspired, I wanna feel better. Maybe read Leviticus and really ask the question, what does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about God?
And it will become an entirely different book. Yes, it is a little more tedious because it really outlines the laws, but pause with each one and ask that question, and all of a sudden, Leviticus becomes a treasure chest of the attributes of God. And so I would encourage you to read it. With that, knowing that there's not as much narrative, and that's okay.
It's coming back, but this is where we can sit and dwell with God in the same way that the Israelites sat at the base of Mount Sinai at the presence of God as well. So that would be how I would wrap that up. But we, I, I love Hebrews, Joey, but you can't not mention Hebrews in our episode on Leviticus.
So if you would, I would love you to read, Hebrews chapter 10, and then offer any other thoughts. And then take us into our final, point of the framework. Number seven, some of our favorite things that we haven't already mentioned, but why should we know Hebrews 10, will you read it and just give us any thoughts and first reactions on it and why it's so amazing
Yes. Hebrews is the companion book to Leviticus, no doubt. And it's called Hebrews cuz it was written to the Hebrew people. And Leviticus is showing us what that holiness looked like then. And, and here's what holiness looks like now. It says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 through 14,
and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a foot stool for his feet for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
What a powerful passage of scripture that is. Hebrews nine and 10. Show us that all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, they had to be repeated all the time, but Jesus died once. And he died for all. And so to be in Christ is to have all sin removed. It's to be justified just as if I'd always obeyed, just as if I'd lived a life that was holy before God.
And so God accomplishes salvation for us. And sanctification is both the position we have now in God and the process by which we are being made holy, like God. And so Hebrews just drives it home that we have a blood that's better than that of Abel, a priesthood better than that of the Levies, a sacrifice better than that of the blood of bulls and goats.
And a high priest who is better than that of Melchizidek or anyone else, Aaron and the like. We have Jesus, the righteous Christ Jesus, who is the great high priest, whoever lives to make intercession for us because he's able to save us to the uttermost. How awesome is that?
It's
I love it.
Yeah. And when we understand the, how the priesthood functions in the Old Testament, we can understand, where it says here, every priest stands daily at his serve. Often, repeatedly, just like Joey said, Jesus has changed everything, but you can't know the everything that he's changed, if we only read the second part of the story. Getting into Leviticus helps us see how it all was formed and where and why it was formed.
And so thank you for reading Hebrews. I am really excited to get to Hebrews, but it's gonna be a while. Cause we're going book by book, but I couldn't leave it alone. Joey, I appreciate you letting me indulge on that.
Any final things? Number seven, what? Anything that we haven't already said, because we're wrapping up and, what we personally love about Leviticus, I just love that it, it displays the full beauty of God, including his wrath, including his patience, his kindness, and his love.
And I love that it challenges me a little bit. It makes me kind of get away from myself. I think that's one of my favorite things about Leviticus is it says, this is hard. Are you gonna give up or are you gonna go through? Are you gonna look for me in this? Like I said earlier, I wanna encourage us to be readers of the Bible who are reading for God, because the Bible is a book about God. What are some of your favorite things about Leviticus as we wrap up?
I am gonna say something really short and sweet. I love Leviticus because I don't have to do it anymore. In other words, it, I, I know I, I never was a Jew living back all those years ago, but I am so thankful when I read this book, I don't have to do all those regulations and sacrifices that I can come boldly to the throne of grace, where I can obtain mercy and find grace to help in my time of need.
I love the fact that Jesus accomplished the sacrifices fulfilled the feasts and has become for us the perfect offering that God was pleased by. And I'm just gonna end with one final verse, Bodie and I'll. I'll just say thank you, Jesus, for the glory of what you have shown us through Leviticus. But I'm gonna read from the last book of the Bible, revelation chapter five, verse nine.
It says, and they sang a new song saying You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you or slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And you have made us kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign on the earth. Leviticus set the tone and Jesus Christ finished the tune. And we have a great song of salvation to sing because we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Amen. That's my final words on that, . Hallelujah.
we could keep going, but we're not going to. We hope that this episode has been helpful, that this framework, cuz we ask these questions, that it really helps orient the story for you.
So that was episode nine, Leviticus explained. So now Joey, we are gonna get back into a little more narrative, aren't we in the book of numbers?
So in episode 10, we are going to do the same thing. Numbers Explained. The book of Numbers and it's gonna be fun because now. See where they go from Sinai as they now begin to progress toward the promised land, and that is going to be awesome. So just a quick reminder,
the timeline that we've been using, if you want to get your hands on that, is that YouCanLearnthBible.com/timeline, it's a free PDF, it's a complete Bible timeline. And just kind of give you the full picture. Joey, what is one thing that we should be looking forward to in our next episode before we, before we call it for today.
Well, the Book of Numbers, something we can count on is that we're gonna see that over and over again.
We're gonna be wandering, in the wilderness in our own spiritual lives until we put our full faith and trust in the Lord. And we're gonna see in the book of Numbers just how many different times again, the people of God are still failing, and Jesus is still being faithful. God is still taking care of his people while they're in the wilderness. And so we're gonna get to learn a lot about that through Numbers Explained.
Amen. Thank you for joining us today, grace At Peace. We are so excited to be on this journey. Thank you for giving us some of your time and attention, and we just pray that you stay in the word that you read it because we really believe that you can learn the Bible. So until next time, we'll see you.
God bless you,