Leviticus is notorious for being the book that stops people when they first try to read the Bible cover-to-cover. Why is Leviticus in the Bible? How do you effectively and engagingly preach on Leviticus?
What’s Leviticus About?
Leviticus sits within the narrative of the first five books of the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, God dwells with his people: he ‘walks with them in the garden in the cool of the day’ (Gen 3:8). But when they sin, he banishes them. The rest of the Bible is the story of how God makes it possible for people to live with him again.
In Genesis 12, God promises Abram that he will make his descendants into a great nation. The rest of Genesis and the first half of Exodus is the story of God fulfilling this promise, multiplying Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah’s descendants and bringing them out of Egypt to Sinai. In the second half of Exodus, the LORD tells his new people how to live. He gives them instructions for building the tabernacle, ‘moves in’ to it, and starts leading Israel towards the promised land.
But there’s a problem: no one can enter the tabernacle and be in the LORD’s holy presence. He is close to his people but is still distant from them. For the LORD God to safely dwell with his still-sinful people, something has to be done. Leviticus is what is done.
How Is Leviticus Structured?
Basically, Leviticus is a series of ceremonies and rules designed to bridge the gap between the LORD and his people. The book has a concentric structure:
1–7 Ritual (sacrifices)
8–10 Priests (ordination)
11–15 Purity (ritual)
16–17 The Day of Atonement
18–20 Purity (moral)
21–22 Priests (standards)
23–27 Ritual (festivals)
Our preaching series took each of these blocks in order:
Sermon 1: Leviticus 1–7
In this sermon I introduced people to the problem Leviticus solves and to the sacrificial system. The system of atoning sacrifices teaches Israel three things: sin is serious; it can be forgiven; but forgiveness needs to be on God’s terms. It is important to note that not all the sacrifices in Leviticus are atoning, many of them are fellowship offerings to express gratitude to God. Don’t conflate the two. However, there is an overall emphasis on atonement in Leviticus.
I finished this sermon by preaching about the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice Jesus offered for our sins, described in Hebrews 10:11–14.
Sermon 2: Leviticus 8–10
This section introduces us to the priests. We read of their ordination and first attempts at offering sacrifices. Because atonement and worship is on the LORD’s terms, it must be conducted by God-appointed mediators. When the priests offer sacrifices in line with the LORD’s instructions, they work, but when they don’t, the priests die (Lev 10:1–3). The people need obedient mediators.
In Hebrews 7:26–28 we learn that Jesus is the perfect, eternal, sinlessly obedient mediator for God’s people.
Sermon 3: Leviticus 11–15
This section moves away from the tabernacle to everyday life, in its discussion of the clean and unclean laws. I take these laws to be a visual representation of the need for the Israelites to be distinct from the nations around them and, in particular, to be distinct in their hatred of death. Nearly all the laws are to do with things associated with mortality—blood, skin diseases, mould, and bodily discharges.
Jesus is the ultimate clean one, who cleanses us from sin and death (Heb 9:13–14). Now that Jesus has come, we no longer obey these laws, but rather look to their fulfillment by trusting in Jesus for cleansing, and by following him in our promotion of life and opposition to death.
Sermon 4: Leviticus 16–17
This is the climax of the book: the Day of Atonement. I decided to wait until this sermon to point out the concentric structure of the book, because it communicates the importance of these chapters by placing them at its core. The Day of Atonement is not the only time in Israel’s calendar when atoning sacrifice is offered, but it is the one day of the year when sacrifice is offered for ‘all the sins’ of the Israelites (Lev 16:30)—that is, I think, for any ones they’ve missed sacrificing for in the rest of the year. It is also the one day when a priest can go into the Most Holy Place.
Hebrew 9:6–14 explains the limitations of the Day of Atonement, arguing that it showed that access to God was still limited under the old covenant. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension make a more perfect and permanent way for all of God’s people to come into his presence.
Sermons 5 and 6: Leviticus 18–22
The concern of these chapters is with the moral purity of the Israelites (Lev 18–20) and the obedience of their priests (21–22).
Chapters 18 to 20 stress the importance of the Israelites living good lives as a way of marking them out from the nations around them. Christians are to live the same way, for the same reason (for e.g. 1 Pet 2:11–12); there are good avenues here for discussing Christian living.
In chapters 21 to 22, the attention turns to the obedience of the priests, and this also presents opportunities to talk about Christian living, as Christians are also ‘priests’ (1 Pet 2:9) in the sense that we mediate between God and the world by holding his gospel out to people (see Rom 15:16). There is also opportunity to talk about the importance of godly living especially among Christian leaders because although they are not ‘priests’ in any directly mediatorial sense, they are, like the Levitical priests, leaders of God’s people, and so are held to higher standards (Jas 3:1).
Sermon 7: Leviticus 23–27
This final section goes through the various Sabbaths and feasts the Israelites are to observe. It gives a great chance to discuss the importance of rhythms of rest in the Christian life. It also gives an opportunity to talk about the importance of regularly meeting for corporate worship (for e.g. church), as it’s clear these holidays and Sabbaths are not just for rest, but worship: they are ‘sacred assemblies, to the LORD.’
Did the Levitical Sacrifices Work?
This is a question you’ll need to answer during this series. Was the sacrificial system just a picture of what Jesus would do, and so did it leave the Israelites still unforgiven? Or did the sacrifices actually work? My view is that although the sacrifices themselves did not pay for sins (Heb 10:4), the Israelites were forgiven through performing them. It’s a bit like a cheque book. The Old Testament sacrifices were like cheques which Israel presented to God. At that point in salvation history, there was nothing in the ‘bank account’ these cheques were connected to: Jesus hadn’t died yet. But God ‘honoured’ the cheques in advance, knowing that the account one day would be full because Jesus would pay for their sins (Rom 3:25).
For their part, the Israelites didn’t know that a person called Jesus would die, but they did know sin could only be forgiven through a God-ordained sacrificial death, and so put their trust in that. Surely many were simply trusting that by the LORD’s will these sacrifices were the vehicle of grace; but, at least as salvation history unfolds, it becomes more and more clear that they were aware of the inadequacy of animal sacrifices, and so were led to trust that somehow the LORD would provide for what these ceremonies lacked (see for e.g. Ps 40:6–8; 50:7–15; 51). Their sins were not atoned for by the animal sacrifices themselves, but by what they pointed towards: Jesus’ death on the cross.
How Relevant Is Leviticus for the Christian Life?
How much can we learn about the Christian life from Leviticus? If you aren’t careful, you can, as the preacher, jump to the New Testament fulfilment in a way that leave the details of Leviticus behind, so that the relevance of the sermon to Christians would be no different if it were a sermon on a New Testament passage.
How much of Leviticus applies to us? A helpful way of answering the question (for which I am indebted to Rory Shiner) is: ‘None of it. Some of it. All of it.’ How much of Leviticus applies to us? Well, none of it: it’s all been fulfilled by Jesus. As such, I no longer need to strictly take Saturday off work or celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, for example. But, as the Sabbath laws are themselves based in patterns of creation—six days of work, one day of rest—I can still apply some of it to myself. For example, I can still see the wisdom of taking one full day off a week. Finally, because it is all fulfilled in Jesus, I can apply all of it—all of Leviticus. In a sense, I keep all the rest laws, by finding my ultimate rest in Jesus (see Matt 11:28) and by looking forward to the great Sabbath rest of eternity (see Heb 4:1–13).
