Learning to Love Leviticus

Transcript

So this morning, we're going to talk about Leviticus. Take a deep breath. It's all right. So I want everyone to think really quickly about what your favorite Bible verse is. Take a second to think it over. And I want to start with a little experiment. Raise your hand if your favorite Bible verse comes from the Book of Psalms. OK. Not many, but that's all right. What about from one of the letters in the New Testament? A few more. A few more. Maybe from one of the Gospels. OK, a few more. All right. Lastly, raise your hand if your favorite verse from the whole Bible is found in the Book of Leviticus. I don't know if I believe you, Uncle Jim. Yeah. So I think that you would be hard pressed to find someone who instantly thinks of Leviticus when asked about their favorite Bible verse. I mean, sure, there's a couple of memorable verses. Uncle Jim knows them by heart, I'm sure. But generally, it is a book of the Bible that people tend to shy away from. Most people are intimidated by Leviticus. And frankly, with good reason, it is a difficult book to read through. And to modern audiences, it is a book that is full of these weird, obscure rules and regulations that just don't really seem to make a whole lot of sense to us. And so here we are today learning to love Leviticus. And now, to clarify this, I don't expect anyone's favorite book of the Bible after Sunday school to now be Leviticus. You may have noticed my hand was not raised either. However, I do hope that we can come to appreciate this book quite a bit more. So rather than seeing this book as some awkward, uncomfortable set of laws that don't really have any significance to us today, I hope that we'll come to see it as an important part of the biblical story, and that we'll learn to be better disciples because of it. And so to begin, let's just remember this, that God's word is inspired. Everything that we read in our Bibles was written down for a purpose. Here's Paul's reminder to Timothy. He says, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, it's easy to agree with this when we're reading the Sermon on the Mount, or the Letter of James, or even the Book of Proverbs. But however, it is not quite as easy when we are six chapters deep in specific requirements for animal sacrifices or skin disease. And yet, Paul's word still stands. All scripture, Paul says, all scripture is God-breathed, is inspired by God. And it's not only inspired, but it's useful. Sometimes you might just scratch your head at that and think, useful? I mean, how is this collection of ancient Middle Eastern laws? How is that going to be useful to me today? How is the Book of Leviticus going to thoroughly equip me for every good work? Well, Jesus gives us a clue in John 5. Speaking to the Pharisees, he says, you pour over the scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. But these are the very words that testify about me. And just a few verses later, he continues, for if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me. And in Luke's Gospel, there's a very similar passage in Luke 24, in verse 27, where Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And so when we read the Book of Leviticus, or really any book of the Old Testament, we should be looking for the Lord Jesus. And sometimes he's hidden somewhere under the surface. And sometimes it's deep under the surface. But he is always there. See, the Book of Leviticus is going to teach us about Jesus Christ and about the character of God and how you and I should respond to God's grace. You and I, not just the ancient Israelites. And so, of course, we can start to understand that Leviticus must be important because it is inspired, because it is God-breathed. And Paul tells us that all scripture, even Leviticus, is useful to equip us for every good work. However, when we take a closer look at the Torah or the first five books of the Old Testament, when we take a closer look at the Torah, and particularly at the organization of these five books, we'll see that the structure itself suggests maybe even a bit more importance than we may have expected. See, when Paul says that all scripture is inspired by God, I don't think that it's exclusive to the words that are written. But I'd suggest that this would include the Bible's structure as well. Of course, there are exceptions to this. For example, when we read from our Bibles today, there are these chapter breaks and verse numbers. And really, these are just a organizational tool that translators had added into the Bible a few hundred years ago. However, I believe that what is important for us to consider is the literary structure of the scriptures, as it can clue us in on certain key principles. Now, perhaps the most common example of literary form that we see in the scripture is what's called a chiasm. Now, perhaps some of us might be familiar with this term chiasm, but it's relatively new for me. So regardless whether or not you think you know it, I will say that you have seen an example of this at some point or another, whether you're aware of it or not. See, I sometimes think of a chiasm as the Oreo form. Think of an Oreo, which I bet you were not expecting to hear in a Sunday school class on Leviticus. So an Oreo, you have two matching cookies, right, on the outside. And in between those outer layers is the best part, is the most important part, is that Oreo filling. And here's another example. You might recognize the people in the middle. It's me and Melissa, but she didn't come on time today. So here's another example. The second I put this picture up on the screen, who stood out to you? The bride, good. So Melissa and myself, the bride and the groom. How come? Surely part of it is because we're wearing different things. There is a reason that you aren't supposed to wear white to a wedding, after all. However, look at what's surrounding us. On either side, there are bridesmaids and groomsmen. And at the center are the bride and groom. This right here, this is a chiasm. See, what this form is doing is essentially putting a frame around the key idea. And so while we might be familiar with this structure visually, we don't see it as much in writing, at least not in our culture today, anyways. So what we are more likely familiar with is seeing the key points saved until the end, saved the best for last. Think of the way that a speech powerfully builds up towards its conclusion before driving home the point. But the Bible is full of these little chiasms, like this, these little Oreos or wedding pictures. Here's another quick example from scripture. It's a lot of text, but don't worry. Let's look at the book of Joshua. This comes from Joshua chapter 1, verses 5 through 9. This is a very well-known passage. Some of us may even know it by heart. And as I read this, I want everyone to take a second to look at these verses. And I'm wondering if anyone can spot the bride and groom of the passage. Reading from Joshua chapter 1. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So what do we think? And you have a guess where that bride and groom might be, where that Oreo filling is of Joshua chapter 1. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. So look at the way it's framed here. On the outer layers, I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. And down at the bottom, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And then we go another layer in. And in the next layer, be strong and courageous. We see that in verse 6 up at the top, and then again down in verse 9. Then the next layer in, be careful to do all that I have commanded you. And again down at the bottom, careful to do according to all that is written in it. Then finally, we have this central idea. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. So in this passage in Joshua, the central idea is just that. It is central. Look in the middle. And the idea is that we immerse ourselves in God's word. That we meditate on it day and night. And the rest of this will fall into place. So what does this chiasm stuff have to do with Leviticus? It's probably what you're thinking. There's a lot of talk about literary structure, and you're starting to ask yourself this question. Well, I think it's really interesting to note that many biblical scholars suggest that the Torah itself, again, the first five books of the Bible, that the Torah itself is one large macro level chiasm. And right at its center is the book of Leviticus. So now in this case, we aren't necessarily going to see repeated words and phrases as succinctly as the Joshua example, but rather we will see the major themes that arise throughout the law. So the outer layers, when we look at the Torah itself, the outer layers of Genesis and Deuteronomy, both focus on separation from the nations and on God's blessing. With Abraham and with Moses, both, there is a huge focus on seeing the promised land. And there are descendants inhabiting that land. And then we're going to move one layer deeper in, and we see that Exodus and Numbers also share very similar themes. Both of these books focus on Israel's wanderings through the desert. We see plagues against Egypt because of Pharaoh's hardness of heart. And we see it also in Numbers 25 with the story of the bail of Peor, which resulted in a plague that wiped out 24,000 Israelites. And additionally, in Exodus, the Israelites arrive and they settle at Mount Sinai. And in Numbers, the Israelites depart from Sinai. And so this brings us to the center, to the core of the Torah, Leviticus. And it's in this book that we learn the importance of sacrifice, of cleanness, and perhaps most importantly, of holiness. I recently read an article that was written by a rabbi who had said that in Hebrew elementary schools, the young boys traditionally begin learning the Torah at the age of five. And here's what he wrote. He said, they begin with Leviticus. The book of the Torah, which I suspect most modern Jewish adults like the least, sprinkle blood and burnt kidneys and laws about nakedness. It couldn't be further from the post-sacrificial Judaism that we know and cherish. Many scholars and rabbis and literary critics make the case that the Torah has a chiastic structure or is a chiasm. And in a book with a chiastic structure, the most important part is not the beginning or the end, but what's in the middle. Leviticus is in the middle of the Torah. Therefore, it's the most important part. See, scripture is wholly inspired by God. Everything not only is written purposefully, but it is also organized in a purposeful way. So looking at this, it became clear to me that God has placed a lot of importance on the book of Leviticus. It is worth looking at. It is worth studying. It is worth learning to love. So let's go ahead and dive in. The name of the book, Leviticus. Anyone know off the top of their head or have a guess what Leviticus means or maybe what it sounds like? And that name actually comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was the Latin translation of the Bible in the fourth century. That's where we get the word Leviticus. Interestingly, however, there is actually very little content in the book that does pertain to the Levites, at least explicitly directed to the Levites. Originally, the Hebrew title of this book was Vayikra. I'll have to ask someone another time about what that actually is pronounced like. But it has a different Hebrew title, which referred to the very first word of the book, which translates to, and he called, or and the Lord called. And this is exactly what we see in verse 1. And the Lord called to Moses. Now, I don't know about you, but there is a very specific part of this first sentence, the very first sentence of this book that stands out to me. And it's that very first word, and. It's like grammar 101, that you don't start a sentence, let alone a book, with the word and. So do you ever imagine a conversation in your head without actually having that conversation? Melissa will attest to this, but sometimes we will be at home. Melissa's just trying to read her book, and I will randomly blurt out. You know, and the other thing about that is, and I go on on some long tangent with absolutely zero context, and she's just like, what are you talking about? I almost finished my chapter. Because see, the thing is, what Melissa does not know is that while she was reading, I was thinking back to this random conversation we had two Tuesdays ago. And I was picking up where we left off. I mean, how does she not just read my mind like that? I don't get it. See, to really understand, you need to think back to that conversation from before. Knowing the context of what someone is talking about is the only way to have that conversation. And similarly, the book of Leviticus opens, and the Lord called to Moses. And so to know what's going on here, we really can't start at verse 1. So to truly know where we're starting here at the book of Leviticus, we have to go back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and everything that fills them. And he made man, and he placed him in the Garden of Eden. And at the beginning of creation, we see a glimpse of all things working together in perfect union and harmony with God. Sin had not yet entered into the world. God and man are dwelling together in the Garden. But as we know, this sort of glimpse of perfection, this was short lived. Because God gave Adam and Eve a command. He said, you must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Eve took the fruit, and she ate it. And then she gave the fruit to Adam, and he ate it. And their actions had dire consequences. And we read about this in Genesis 3. Genesis 3, and starting at verse 23 and 24, it says, so the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. So while, yes, there was a perfect union between God and man, with God and man dwelling together, man's sin creates a rift in that relationship. See, the moment that sin enters into the world, it affects the ability for humanity to dwell with God. This is exemplified with Adam and Eve, not simply being banished from the Garden, but with the Garden itself being guarded to prevent them from re-entering. See, Adam and Eve cannot enter into God's presence. But this rift is one that God is going to repair. We know from reading both Genesis and Revelation that this idea sort of bookends all of scripture. The creation of the heavens and the earth saw God and man dwelling together. And likewise, the creation of the new heavens and the new earth will see the exact same thing. Revelation 21 begins, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth, they had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. And he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. See, this is a beautiful image of our hope. The damage has been undone. There's no more crying. There's no more pain, no more mourning, no more death. And all throughout scripture, we see glimpses of this image. Think of the previews that play before a movie, at the movie theaters, showing you what to expect from the movie before you actually experience the full thing. When we read Isaiah, for example, prophesying about the kingdom, that's like God telling us, coming soon to a Jerusalem near you. And I'd suggest to you that the book of Leviticus is no different. Hidden beneath all of these laws and regulations is a story of our God making a way for his people to dwell with him again. God makes this promise to Israel in the book of Exodus. So open with me in your Bibles, and let's take a look at Exodus chapter 29. See, God makes this promise to Israel in Exodus. Exodus 29, starting in verse 42, is just speaking about the tabernacle. We read the 10th of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. It says, there I will meet with the people of Israel. And it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar, Aaron also and his sons. I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel. And I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. For I am the Lord, their God. This, again, is speaking about the tabernacle. And the latter half of the book of Exodus consists almost entirely of very detailed description of the tabernacle's construction. And here in chapter 29, God's promise, we see, is to dwell with his people. He even says, I brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. See, this idea of dwelling in the presence of God is both a promise and a longing and a desire. See, God has promised to dwell with his people. We see it here in Exodus. And we see it again at the end of Revelation. David writes this in Psalm 23, the very famous Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd. He says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. See, this is a promise that God has made for all his people. But this is also what God's people long for. The sons of Korah describe their longing for this, their desire to dwell with God. In Psalm 84, how lovely is your dwelling place. O Lord of hosts, my soul longs. Yes, it faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh, they sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home in the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars. O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. This is the desire of all God's people. Our soul should long for this, faint, to be in the courts of the Lord, to be in his presence, to hear our Lord tell us, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. And so if we were to read the Bible for the first time, and we read straight from Genesis 1, and we get to God's promise here in Exodus, we're anticipating this fulfillment. God's tabernacle will be built, and he will dwell with his people. That broken relationship is going to be mended. We continue in the record all the way to the ending of Exodus in chapter 40. So that broken relationship, brothers and sisters, is going to be mended. In the record all the way to the end of Exodus, in Exodus chapter 40, we see from a narrative standpoint, this is the pinnacle of the biblical story. The people are on their way to the promised land. The people, they have finally built the tabernacle. It's finished. God will dwell with his people again. It's all coming to a head and seeing its fulfillment. We see in chapter 40, we're gonna look at verse 16. It says, thus did Moses according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he. And it came to pass in the first month and the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses reared up the tabernacle and fastened his sockets and set up the boards thereof and put in the bars thereof and reared up his pillars. And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent above it as the Lord commanded Moses. And he took and put the testimony into the ark and set the staves on the ark and put the mercy seat upon the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the covering and cover the ark of the testimony as the Lord commanded Moses. And he put the table in the tent of the congregation upon the side of the tabernacle northward without the veil. He set the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation over against the table on the side of the tabernacle southward. And he lit the lamps before the Lord, again as the Lord commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tent in the congregation before the veil and he burnt sweet incense thereon as the Lord commanded Moses. And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. And upon it, offered upon it, the burnt offering and the meat offering as the Lord commanded Moses. And he set the lever between the tent of the congregation and the altar and he put water there to wash with all. And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet there at. And when they went into the tent of the congregation and when they came near unto the altar, they washed as the Lord commanded Moses. And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar and set up the hanging of the court gate. And so Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And you can really sense the excitement building up all of these intricate detailed construction of the tabernacle, the tent, the arc of the covenant, the altar, the table, the lampstand, all of it. Moses did just as the Lord had commanded. All of the work has been finished. And just as God promised, God's presence and his glory fills the tabernacle in this big dramatic scene where the entire tabernacle, it gets covered by the cloud of God's presence. But the story does not end there. Instead, it goes on. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and because the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Wait a minute, what just happened? I thought that God said that this was where he was gonna meet with his people. But now we have a problem because Moses, Israel's mediator, he cannot enter into the tent of meeting. If he can't go in, how is any Israelite gonna be in the presence of the Lord? How can Israel dwell with God? Or to put it more broadly, how can we, sinful men and women, have fellowship with our holy God? And this is the question that we're left with at the end of Exodus. And it's the same question we ask ourselves as Leviticus opens and the Lord calls to Moses from the tent of meeting. God is inside the tabernacle and Moses is outside. This should stand out to us as a big deal because back in Exodus 29, God made a promise about the tabernacle. He told us what its purpose was, what its purpose was gonna be and if we turn back there for a moment, we're going to notice that there's not just one but two purposes for the tabernacle. So in Exodus 29, looking at verse 45, we see that God's intention is to dwell with his people. He says, I will dwell with the people of Israel and I will be their God. Again, he goes on to say even that I brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell with them. The tabernacle was meant to be a dwelling place for God but that was not the only intention because if we look up just a couple of verses to verse 42, God says, this is where I will meet with you. The tabernacle is often called the tent of meeting. God says, I will speak to you there. In that it is where I will meet with the people of Israel. And I think it's easy for us as Christadelphians to understand this idea because what do we often call it when we come here on a Sunday morning? Meeting, right? I'm gonna go to meeting. Not like the way that you have a meeting with your boss at work, but rather we are meeting together as a family. We're sharing in fellowship with one another. We are gathering together as brothers and sisters to meet around the table of the Lord. See, the tabernacle was not meant just to be a place for God's presence to be, for God's presence to dwell but it was intended to be a place where God's people can share fellowship with him. For the tabernacle to truly be completed, it needed to serve both of these purposes. But what we see at the end of Exodus, it isn't a complete ending. See, the tabernacle is only serving one purpose, but not both. So look at verse 34 and 35 of Exodus 40. These verses, I think, are key to understanding the book of Leviticus. And there's two really important things. First of all, let's take a closer look at these two verses and we'll find yet again another example of that Oreo form. We read, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And so we see what we're left with is an image of God's glory completely engulfing the tabernacle. Not once, but twice. And these two images frame this key point, the conflict that still needs to be resolved. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting. We can also take a look at the wording here. It says that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And that word tabernacle there means the dwelling place, God's dwelling place. The glory of the Lord filled his dwelling place. That much has been accomplished. But Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting. He couldn't yet have fellowship with God. And so we come back to this question as we're wrapping up. How can we sinful men and women have fellowship with our holy God? And this question is what drives the book of Leviticus. Every law, every sacrifice, every command is written with the purpose of answering it. Leviticus tells the story of how the dwelling of God becomes the tent of meeting for God's people. To meet with him and to share fellowship with their creator. And somewhere hidden among all of these sacrifices and laws lies the answer. So to close, I just wanna take a quick look at the book of Numbers. Let's come to Numbers chapter one and verse one. This is the book right after Leviticus. And there's a verse that I suspect many of us would ordinarily just kind of breeze right through. Not really seeing any major significance to it. I know I've done that many times. But I hope now that you'll notice one significant word. Numbers one and verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting. See, it is the wisdom that is offered to us in the book of Leviticus that causes this transformation. God's dwelling has finally become the tent of meeting for God's people. Leviticus begins, the Lord spoke to Moses from the tent of meeting. Leviticus ends, Numbers begins. The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting. See, there's no denying that Leviticus is a challenging book to understand and to grow to appreciate it, to learn to love it. It takes time. Right, so this is just a really introduction to the book of Leviticus. You notice we looked at one verse in it. So there's a whole lot more there. But what I want us to take away from this morning is that at its core, Leviticus is a story of a holy God who graciously provides a way for a sinful people to dwell in his presence. David writes in Psalm 16, he says, you make known to me the path of life and in your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.