O How I've Missed Leviticus

I had hoped to write more these last few months.  I've been just keeping my head above water with school and caring for my family!  I admit we fell a week behind in our scripture reading about a month ago, but have continued to read and have held steadily at a week behind ever since.  We plan to catch up once I have finished my papers.  I know those of you that are up to date have long finished Leviticus, but my mind hasn't moved on yet.

I'm disappointed that in the midst of the business of life I missed the chance to explore Leviticus together!  How often do YOU have the opportunity to talk about Leviticus with a bunch of others who are reading it the same time?  It doesn't happen often enough ;) 

In college Leviticus was my "favorite" book of the bible.  Not because I "got it."  I loved it because it was puzzling, and intriguing, and historically interesting.   Since we've moved past it already in our readings, rather than working through it in blog form I'll suggest a book that brought Leviticus to life for me and helped me finally *begin* to grasp the place it can have in a Christian's life!

I first read "Immanuel in Our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel's Worship" (by Tremper Longman III) somewhere around a decade ago as a text for Jerry Shepherds "Worship in Ancient Israel" class (Taylor Seminary).  The class changed the way I saw the OT and ancient Israel, and how I understood worship, and Christ's sacrifice. 

The class filled in so many gaps that I knew I had in my OT understanding, it brought the NT and the OT together, and it made a lot of sense!  If you find Leviticus confusing, or assume its irrelevant for Christians in light of the new covenant I'd encourage you to give it another chance!  Jerry is also writing a commentary on Leviticus for The Story of God Bible Commentary, so something to look forward to!

"Immanuel in Our Place" is fascinating and eye opening, and it's also breeze to read.  It comes with some great discussion questions that could be used for group study, too.  I hope we will have the chance to talk more in the future!

I am also catching up on the companion readings in D. A. Carson's "For the Love of God, Vol 1" and only just read this entry on Leviticus, which I will share in closing.  You can find the book free here :)

IMAGINE A COMPLEX, WELL-ORDERED SOCIETY such that in every area of life there are actions that make a person dirty and further prescribed actions that make that person clean. When you get up in the morning, you wear clothes of certain kinds of fabric, but not others. There are clean foods and unclean foods. If a spot of mold appears on the wall of your house, there are procedures for treating it. Men must adopt a certain course after a wet dream, women in connection with their periods. Some unclean things must not even be touched. In addition there is a complex religious and sacrificial system each person is supposed to observe, and failure to observe it at any point brings its own uncleanness. And all of this fits into a still broader set of constraints that include what we normally call moral categories: how we speak, truth-telling, how we treat others, questions of property, sexual integrity, neighborly actions, judicial impartiality, and so forth. Understand, too, that in this society the rules have been laid down by God himself. They are not the results of some elected Congress or Parliament, easily overturned by a fickle or frustrated public eager for something else. To ignore or defy these rules is to defy the living God. What kinds of lessons would be learned in such a society? 

Welcome to the world of Leviticus. This, too, is part of the heritage from Mount Sinai, part of the Mosaic Covenant. Here the people of God are to learn that God prescribes what is right and wrong, and that he has a right to do so; that holiness embraces all of life; that there is a distinction between the conduct of the people of God and the conduct of the surrounding pagans, not merely a difference in abstract beliefs. Here the Lord himself prescribes what sacrifices are necessary, along with confession of sin (Lev. 5:5), when a person falls into uncleanness; and even that the system itself is no final answer, since one is constantly falling under another taboo and returning to offer sacrifices one has offered before. One begins to wonder if there will ever be one final sacrifice for sins. 

But that is down the road. Here in Leviticus 5, Christian readers delight to observe that while God trains up his covenant people in elementary religious thought, he provides means such that even the poorest in society may regain cleanness. The person who cannot afford a sacrificial lamb may bring a pair of doves or a pair of pigeons; the person who cannot afford these may bring a small amount of flour. The lessons continue; always there is hope and a way of escape from the punishment that rebellion attracts. 

Lets talk soon!