One book of the Bible that is frequently neglected is Leviticus. It's a book full of lists and instructions about sacrifices, cleansing from skin diseases, and purification after a variety of circumstances. Many who start a one year Bible reading plan often stop here due to the content that seems dry and pointless to our lives in the twenty-first century. So why is it included in Scripture?
In college I took a class called Worship in the Christian Tradition. It was a lot of work, a lot of reading, note taking, long essay tests, but it was one of the most rewarding classes of my collegiate career. The first day of class the professor told us one of the only things I remember word for word from school, "Worship is a trusting, obedient, response to the word of God." So often we put worship into the box of singing, praying, Bible reading, and church attendance. We often refer to the person leading music on Sunday morning as the worship leader. We've compartmentalized "worship" into the spiritual actions we perform on Sunday morning, or maybe if we've become a little more open minded, to our personal quiet time with God. But worship is so much more than that.
If worship is a response to the word of God, then everything in life is an opportunity to worship. Every choice made in life is either a decision to worship or failure to. Worship is so much more than singing in church. A life that is formed into Christlikeness and lives for the glory of God is a life of worship. Worship is an essential part of life.
And so we come back to Leviticus. The book takes place after the nation of Israel has been released from slavery in Egypt. God sent Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and bring them to worship God as He led them to the Promised Land. At one point in the conversations with Pharaoh he gives permission for the people to go but there is this contingent in Exodus 10. "Then Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, 'Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you.' But Moses said, 'You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the LORD our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the LORD our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the LORD.'"
Pharaoh says "Go, but your animals must stay." And Moses responds, "We need them all in order to serve God. We don't know what He requires." At this point, the people had been enslaved for over 400 years. They knew of God and that they were children of Abraham, but they no longer knew how to worship God. They had passed down the stories of Abraham, and all that God had done for him and promised him, but they hadn't worshiped Him as Abraham had in over four centuries. They don't know how to worship God, and so they need to have all of their animals in order to be prepared to worship God.
The book of Leviticus is God teaching His people how to worship Him. It is God showing His people what He requires. We see something incredible about God in this. He must be worshiped because He is Holy and He alone is worthy to be worshiped. We are unworthy to worship God because of sin, but God invites us to worship Him, and delights in the worship we give Him. And God teaches us how to worship Him. He doesn't leave the Israelites to figure it out, He doesn't make them wonder, "Are we doing this right? Is God pleased?" He directly tells the people what to offer and how to offer it for each occasion.
But Leviticus isn't just an irrelevant book of sacrificial ritual instructions. It is a book the foreshadows Jesus, and the final sacrifice He offered on the cross. My professor said frequently, "The New [Testament] is in the Old [Testament] concealed; the Old is in the New revealed." In every book of the Bible there is a for shadowing of Jesus, and the salvation He brings. In Genesis it is Issac, the son of promise, and Joseph the savior of Egypt and His family. In Exodus it is Moses, the deliverer; and here it Leviticus Jesus is seen in the sacrificial rituals.
Dr. Larry Crabb came out with a book a few years ago called, 66 Love Letters. He sees each book of the Bible as a letter from God to us, and the book is written out of his conversations with God about the stories found in each of the sixty-six books of the Bible.
In the chapter on Leviticus it says this,
"All twenty-seven chapters of Leviticus are written to let you know that relationship with Me [God] is always the issue that trumps every other concern, and that relating to Me will always, always, be on My terms. So many people miss that- they identify their needs, then wive Me as a God who wants them satisfied and happy before I deal with their unholiness. But because I love them- and you -I've made a way for you to revolve your life around Me as your first thing. Everything else- your marriage, your checkbook, your self-esteem, your cancer- is a second thing. When the first thing (namely, Me) is in first place in your life, every second thing will be yours to enjoy... I have a plan to get you there, to make you holy. And that's what Leviticus is all about: the requirement that you be holy in order to be close to Me."
He says, "The toughest part of My plan, the part that's costliest to Me, is to make you holy...You don't yet realize that distance from Me is the most lethal problem you have."
God wants us to be Holy. God wants us to be like Him. In worship we draw close to Him, and the closer we are to Him the more we know Him and can become like Him. Jesus came to show us what God is like, and to show us how God would live. In Jesus we have a life of worship modeled, and we are called to become like Christ.
The book of Leviticus shows us Jesus, the perfect sacrifice that makes the sacrificial laws of Leviticus obsolete. But the sacrifice of Jesus calls us a life of holiness, that is fully focused on God and our relationship with Him. Leviticus is a book of worship.
To God alone be the glory!
Peace be with you
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