Don't Avoid Leviticus

Most Christians started a new Bible reading plan in the beginning of the year. Most Bible reading plans begin with the book of Genesis and why not. It is the first book of the Bible after all. They make it through with no problem. 

Then they get to Exodus where we see God raising up Moses to set the Hebrew people from the oppression of the Egyptians. We make it pass the parting of the Red Sea to the Golden Calf along other laws Yahweh made to the people regarding worship. All good so far.

Then there is Leviticus... (Pause of effect). Most Christians shudder at the thought of reading this book. It is mostly due to the fact that the first seven chapters deal with the sacrifices that God demanded from the people. I am sure Leviticus causes some animal rights group to pop a blood vessel when they read this book. 

For most Christians, they want to avoid Leviticus because they see laws in there that make them wonder does God still demand these commandments to be obeyed, which is a very good question, which is not the purpose of this post for today.

The purpose for this post is not to make you feel guilty if you have skipped Leviticus or never read it. My encouragement for you is read Leviticus without any fear because if you are a Christian, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). This book of the Bible is God-breathed and is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). 

The book of Leviticus is a book about God's holiness and His expectations for the Hebrew people to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45). God demands absolute perfection from His people. Now I am sure you are saying no one can be perfect and you are correct, which is why we can read Leviticus knowing we do have One who was perfect on our behalf, Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17), which also includes the sacrificial laws found the first seven chapters of Leviticus. My Old Testament professor, Dr. Bob Utley, said if you ignore these chapters, you cannot appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus. 

When Jesus died on the cross on our behalf, He not only demonstrated God's righteousness (Romans 3:26), but He also fulfilled the sacrificial system. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says Christ is our Passover lamb just the angel of death passed over the Israelites who has blood on their door posts as shown in Exodus 12.  

We can rejoice as we look into these seven chapters and realize that we have a Savior that met every one of the requirements for them to be acceptable to God. We do not have to read them and ponder why we do not do them today. We have all of the Bible, in particular the book of Hebrews, explaining why these sacrifices are not made today. Here a couple of passages:

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10).

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18).

Not sure when you will land in Leviticus in your Bible reading plan. I hope you do not skip it. Read it as the inspired, inerrant Word of God. See why these sacrifices were important and how we can rejoice that our Savior met all of them in our place as our Great High Priest.