Bible Survey: Leviticus
Plenty of people set out to read the Bible through, enjoy Genesis and Exodus, and then stall in Leviticus. That is a shame. Leviticus holds more of the very words of God than any other book — again and again it says the LORD spake unto Moses — and as J. Sidlow Baxter put it, it is meant not merely to be read but to be studied.
The book is about how sinful people may come near to a holy God. In Genesis we see man ruined, in Exodus man redeemed, and in Leviticus man worshipping. The key verse is quoted again in the New Testament: Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16).
Every offering in Leviticus points to the Lord Jesus. No Israelite could offer his own sacrifice; someone had to stand between the sinner and God, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul (Leviticus 17:11). The book falls into two parts: the way to God, which is sacrifice, and the walk with God, which is sanctification.
Its best-known story is a sober one. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not, and fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. God wanted His people to put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean (Leviticus 10:10).
That line has been blurred in a great many homes and churches. We can point to Hollywood and the politicians for the trouble our country is in, but worldly Christians and worldly churches carry their share of it, and some churches now are hard to tell apart from a rock concert. Charles Spurgeon warned in his own day that an unholy church is of no use to the world. Leviticus even forbids marking the body (Leviticus 19:28), which a Christian thinking about a tattoo ought to consider.
Next in the series: Numbers.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, May 3, 2020. Watch the lesson.
