All right, show of hands, how many people have read through the book of Leviticus…on purpose? Anyone? Don’t worry, I never really gave it much thought except when Dr. Michael Hasel made us do it for an Old Testament studies class…and then I admit to skimming and glossing over it. But believe it or not, there is some really good stuff in there about living our lives! So, with that in mind, let’s dive into the book of Leviticus!
The first seven chapters of Leviticus talk about five specific offerings the Israelites were to make to God, and the reasons why they were supposed to do that. Offerings (often referred to as sacrifices in the text) were meant to restore a relationship with God. A gift was offered to God by sacrificing on the altar (which, by the way, was in the center of the camp and visible by everyone). Sacrifices were meant to teach people a few things:- By requiring perfect animals and holy priests, they taught reverence to a holy God.
- By demanding exact obedience, they taught total submission to God’s laws.
- By requiring an animal of great value, they showed the high cost of sin and demonstrated the sincerity of the people’s commitment to God.
- Because of what they were, sacrifices required the use of all senses in worship, which encourages a whole-person response to God!
- The sacrificial system not only taught the people about God’s laws, it presented real opportunity for genuine voluntary response to God.
The Burnt Offering was a voluntary offering to make atonement for sins in general. The purpose was to demonstrate a person’s devotion to God. Jesus, of course, was the perfect offering. (1:1-17, 6:18-30)
Do you show devotion to God by confessing your sins and asking to be made right with Him?Chapter 2: Grain Offering
The Grain Offering was to show honor and respect to God in worship. This voluntary offering was to acknowledge that all we have belongs to God. Jesus was the perfect offering, who gave all of Himself to God and us. (2:1-14, 6:14-18)
Can you even remember the last time you turned off the TV/cell/computer and showed love and respect to God in worship?Chapter 3: Peace Offering
The Peace Offering was an expression of gratitude and thanks to God. It symbolized the peace that fellowship with God brings. Jesus is the only way that we can have true fellowship with God. (3:1-17, 7:11-21)
Have you thanked God for the blessings in your life? For helping calm your inner storms and for always being there with you, through good and bad?Chapter 4: Sin Offering
The Sin Offering was required of the people to make payment for unintentional sins such as uncleanness, neglect, or thoughtlessness towards others that they had committed going about their daily lives. By giving a Sin Offering, the sinner was restored to fellowship with God, and it helps to show us just how harmful sin is. By His death on the cross, Jesus restored our fellowship with God. (4:1-35, 5:1-13, 6:1-7, 24-30)
Have you made a mistake today, even accidentally? Did you talk with God about it and ask to have your relationship with Him restored?Chapter 5: Guilt Offering
The Guilt Offering was required as payment for sins against God and others. The sacrifice was made to God, and before it could be accepted, the person you hurt had to be asked for forgiveness and was repaid for the wrong done. This encourages us to make things right not just with God, but also with each other. By His death, Jesus makes things right between God and us.Chapter 6: Ordination Offering
When you do something that hurts someone else, do you try and make things right, or do you hope things will “just work out?” God instructs us not to wait, but to make things right with the person as soon as we can. When we make things right with others, we can also make things right with God. (5:14-19, 7:1-9)
The Ordination Offering was made when a priest was ordained to the ministry. (6:19-23)
Today we lay hands on a new pastor, elder, or deacon to ordain them to ministry.(ex. Acts 13:2-3)
The people were also instructed to give a portion of their offerings to support the priests (7:28-38).The entire sacrificial system that is described in these first seven chapters of Leviticus were useless to help a sinner unless he (or she) brought an offering with an attitude of repentance and a willingness to confess sins. This confession was done publically because the priests had to perform the sacrifice and put it on the altar before the Lord (and the altar was at the center of everything).
I think that is something sorely lacking in our churches today. We keep everything bottled up, private. We don’t help each other with our struggles and just hope everything will “just work out.” People in church today are so TERRIFIED of being judged for making a mistake, that church has become the loneliest place on earth. A place where lonely people surround themselves with other lonely people, and no one talks about anything “serious.”
God doesn’t want it to be that way! When God was establishing a society for His followers, He was intentional about us sharing each other’s burdens. About confessing our sins to one another and asking Him and those we wronged for forgiveness. Even though Jesus’ death makes animal sacrifices unnecessary today, that doesn’t mean we can stop making things right with God and each other! Jesus’ death is meaningless if we don’t bring our burdens to Him and confess our struggles to one another! God is not going to judge you for asking forgiveness for a sin; to regain that intimate fellowship with Him! He wants that so much He DIED to get it!
It might be easy to dismiss the instructions for maintaining a happy and productive spiritual life that builds strong, meaningful relationships with God and people simply because Leviticus is a long, boring (and sometimes gross) book in the Old Testament. There aren’t “good stories” in it, and we don’t have to do all that stuff any more, so why bother to read it at all? It’s hard! But the apostle James tells us the exact same thing that God told us in Leviticus:
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16)If praying together and helping each other overcome sin was so important that God spent seven chapters going into excruciating detail about it, maybe there’s something to it. What would church be like if it worked like God meant for it too, as outlined in Leviticus and summed up by James?
ENCOUNTER: Would this be a church you’d want to belong too? How do we make it happen?
Some references borrowed from the Life Application Study Bible (NLT) 2nd Edition published by Tyndale House Publishers.
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