Lecture on Leviticus

[Music] the book of leviticus takes its name from the tribe of levi the tribe of moses the tribe that was set aside by god to become the priests of israel right in the middle of the five books of the law is a book that no longer continues to tell the story of what is happening for the most part oh there&#39;s a brief interlude about the death of natab and abihu etc but for the most part the book of leviticus is a book of priestly offerings and sacrifices of the religious uh life of the jewish people it&#39;s a kind of a ecclesiastical sort of a book that tells you how to do your religion in the old testament what it means to be a priest who can be a priest how do you function as a priest how do you dress as a priest what are the laws of cleansing both physically and spiritually the laws of purification god is emphasizing in the book of leviticus the whole theme of holiness in leviticus the picture of christ is that of the atoning sacrifice you know leviticus is that one book that when you say i&#39;m going to read through the bible this year in a whole year and you read genesis and it&#39;s pretty good and you read exodus and it&#39;s got your attention and all of a sudden you get into the book of leviticus and it&#39;s one sin offering after another one sacrifice after another and you just go okay i&#39;m out of here i i don&#39;t get it well let me help you get it okay it&#39;s pretty simple really all of these offerings remind us that we need a better offering that we too need an atoning sacrifice the new testament reminds us that the old testament was our school master to bring us to christ not just our school teacher but the school master was the one that went and got the child from the family and walked him to school to make sure that he had his homework done that he got his lesson together that he was ready to go for the day so to speak the old testament is our school master that walks us to christ and says to us you need a better sacrifice a better atonement a better blood offering a sinless savior you need a better king a better judge a better priest etc it keeps driving us to the person of jesus christ now in leviticus itself the main theme is sanctification if you really are saved and you&#39;re believers and you believe in the lord and you&#39;re trusting him for salvation how is it that you are to live right in response to that what does it mean to be a holy or sanctified people set apart people a people specially dedicated unto the lord and the book of leviticus speaks to us about those issues the authorship questions again are basically the same as we have seen before if we ask the basic questions who wrote the book the conservative view is moses he claims to be the author of the book when did he write it sometime after 1445 bc during the time of the exodus in the early part of the wilderness journey to whom did he write at the israelites where were they presumably at mount sinai why did he write it catch that as instruction for holy worship and holy living all of that is vital to the message of leviticus now take your bible and turn to leviticus chapter 1 verse 1. every time we come to one of these old testament books i&#39;m always going to take you to the first verse if you want to know what&#39;s going on start at the beginning don&#39;t begin at the middle of the book start at the beginning notice in this case the story just keeps rolling along the lord called to moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting or in other translations the tabernacle they have now built the tabernacle as the place of worship for god and now the lord speaks to moses from this place and says to him speak to the israelites and say to them when any of you brings an offering to the lord bring your offering as an animal either from your heart or from your flock and if the offering is a burnt offering then here is how you are supposed to do it and you have in these early chapters of leviticus the basic offerings described the burnt offering the grain offering the fellowship offering the sin offering etc each offering is to be an expression of your way to the holy one each offering is to show that i&#39;m willing to come into the presence of god not by my own works not in my own sinfulness but i come voluntarily into the presence of god and if we outline the book of leviticus we could call the first part of the book the way to the holy one and the way is sacrifice a blood atonement the sacrifices are divided into two basic categories first of all the voluntary offerings in chapters one to three that have to do with our offense to god if i have sinned against god i can offer a burnt offering a meal or a grain offering a peace offering or a fellowship offering in other words if i&#39;ve sinned against god i&#39;ve got to go into my herd and get a lamb take it to the tabernacle to the priest lay my hands on the lamb and say all right i did it got mad yelled at my wife cussed the dog kicked the cat whatever i&#39;ve sinned i have failed you confess and acknowledge your sin and you bring the animal that is the appropriate sacrifice both for your sin and for the financial level at which you are living and you take the animal to the temple and admit this to the priest and they kill the animal instead of killing you they shed the animal&#39;s blood instead of shedding your blood the animal dies in your place and in the old testament the blood of the sacrifice is then applied to the altar as a covering for sin it doesn&#39;t remove your sin the blood of jesus christ does that in the new testament it wipes our sin away but in the old testament it merely covered over the sin so that god would see the blood instead of the sin so to speak now god obviously saw the sin and knew the sin but god is aware of what we do wrong in order to judge what we do the bible says the lord does not look upon sin no he doesn&#39;t look upon it approvingly but he obviously sees sinners and what they do he sends the prophets to confront the sinners and say straighten up and repent he knows what our sin is the blood atonement is a covering when somebody sins something has to die the animal dies in the old testament as an atonement for your sins now that means for most of us every time i sinned in the old testament i got to go into my flock get an animal which i&#39;m no longer going to be able to use for anything else i&#39;ve got to take that animal to the priest to the temple i&#39;ve got to confess my sin and the animal dies well for some of us that would have been a lot of trips to the priest that would have been a lot of dead animals the death of the animal was to remind you of the seriousness of the sin it was to remind you of the consequences of the sin that in all of these religious rituals in the old testament god is saying to us i am a holy and just god loving and forgiving yes but not willing to forgive your sins without the blood atonement abel learned that way back in the book of genesis it was the blood sacrifice that god was looking for adam and eve learned it in the garden of eden when he slew the animals and covered their inadequacy when he makes that first predictive promise that i&#39;ll send somebody into the seat of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent he is predicting the atoning power of the sacrifice of jesus christ now when jesus says to his disciples in luke the last chapter the 24th chapter the 44th verse that the old testament is all about me the law is all about me then we ought to expect that these sacrifices and these symbols and these priestly orders and these religious rituals are pointing to the person of jesus christ the burnt offering had to be slain the dead carcass was laid on the wood the fire was lit they didn&#39;t burn and torture the live animal they burned the dead carcass the animal is burned to ashes consumed up to god completely totally from which the jews get the word holocaust a sacrifice that is totally completely consumed unto god in their experiences in nazi germany they apply that sacred term from the old testament to themselves in a unique way they don&#39;t they really don&#39;t like anybody else to say well i&#39;ve been through a tough time with my mother-in-law that was a real holocaust no no not to them it wasn&#39;t it has to have sacred religious significance and certainly in the old testament it has all of that the burnt offering was the basic sin offering that you were to make to god i have sinned against you and offended you and you along god here&#39;s the animal that dies in my place i can&#39;t eat it i can&#39;t touch it i can&#39;t take the skin from it it is yours completely jesus comes in the new testament as the lamb of god without blemish oh you don&#39;t just take the worst little runny little animal you have and offer that to god it has to be a perfect one and jesus comes as the sinless son of god without sin he is able to be made sin for us the new testament says he takes our sin upon himself he bears our guilt and our iniquities according to isaiah 53 the judgment and chastisement of our peace is upon him he dies as a lamb before the slaughter jesus went to the cross not as a martyr to a cause not as a victim of circumstance not as some squealing screaming victim yelling let me go i&#39;m innocent he goes deliberately and says for this reason i was born i came into the manger raised in the carpenter&#39;s shop so that ultimately i could dine across born in a barn dies on a cross that he might ultimately receive the sin of all mankind poured upon him hallelujah what a savior he has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves he has done for us what the old testament cannot do that&#39;s why the book of hebrews calls his atonement a better sacrifice his atonement speaks forgiveness not judgment his atonement removes our sins it doesn&#39;t just cover them in each of these offerings the offender must come before god at the door of the tabernacle and say i have sinned he must confess and acknowledge and admit his sin and so in the new testament if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins we cannot come to god and act like i&#39;m perfect i&#39;ve never done anything wrong i have no problems at all but if you want a little sacrifice i guess i could admit i don&#39;t know you come saying i did it i have sinned i have failed i am responsible and then you&#39;re in a position to receive salvation as a gift of god&#39;s grace so even in the old testament we see the grace of god they&#39;re not just saved by keeping the law and keeping the ten commandments they can&#39;t humanly do it they can&#39;t keep all of the hundreds of commandments that are given in the old testament if i have to be perfect in order to get into heaven and nobody&#39;s going to make it but it&#39;s in the imperfection of it it&#39;s in the failure of human ability to keep the law that we realize we need forgiveness we need atonement we need a savior not only does the book of leviticus give us uh offerings and sacrifices for our offense toward god but it also gives us a series of offerings for our offense toward mankind and interestingly these are automatically required of us their compulsory offerings in chapters four through seven and then the description uh later of the trespass offering or the guilt offering that if you have sinned against your fellow man if you have trespassed against him or violated him in some way if you are guilty of something that is wrong you&#39;ve got to make things right with people as well on the one hand you make things right with god on the other hand you make things right with people both are required by god both are necessary my offenses toward god my offenses toward my fellow man god requires both at our hands now there are descriptions of how you can do these things in the book of leviticus there is a grain offering that can be brought there is a wave offering where you wave the grain at god in a kind of offering of joy and celebration unto the lord but ultimately in all of these offerings god is pouring out his blessing on us willing to forgive our sins willing to wipe the slate clean if you will willing to give you another chance another opportunity you see the old testament understands something about human nature that people are sinners and sinners are eventually going to do what they&#39;re going to sin against one another they&#39;re going to trespass against one another and they&#39;re going to sin against god therefore there are offerings to resolve the sin against god and offerings to resolve our sin against our fellow man as well the whole idea of making things right with god and making things right with people comes right out of the old testament itself right out of the bible in ancient cultures there were primitive ideas about all of this kind of thing that that gods were angry and uh hated you and wanted to kill you if they had the opportunity to and they were just waiting for the chance to do it and you&#39;re constantly trying to appease the wrath of these gods and sort of manipulate the gods to being on your side but the god of israel is totally different the god of israel says in essence i want to know you personally i want to know you face to face heart to heart life to life i know there will be times you&#39;ll sin against me and here are the offerings you need to bring there are times you&#39;ll sin against your fellow man here are the offerings that you need to bring you need to make things right with me and you need to make things right with each other you see it&#39;s not enough when i have sinned against somebody to say well god i&#39;m sorry because god&#39;s going to turn right around and say good then go to your brother and make it right with him go to him and resolve the problem heart to heart face to face it takes an incredible amount of humility and faith to do that but that&#39;s exactly what god wants us to do in every situation oh i&#39;m not going to him to excuse his behavior or my behavior i&#39;m simply going to say i know what i did was wrong i&#39;ll let god deal with your heart but what i did was wrong and i have sinned against you and i am truly sorry and i do want to make it right and when we do that the character and the heart of god speaks loudly through us it doesn&#39;t just speak through our successes that&#39;s part of it but god also speaks through our pain and our heartache and our failure to say to people that knowing me is the real thing this is the real deal this is what the heart of god is really all about that the offerings are described and prescribed and uh even demanded of us and then the the order of the priests is set up for us as well from chapter eight on he sets aside aaron and his sons who are to be the priests of israel and he gives them the means by which they are to do this that the levites are to be set aside as the tribe of the priests that you consecrate certain people for the priesthood the priest is called by the hebrew term the cohen somebody with the jewish name of cohen today is probably a descendant of the priests or somebody with the name of levy or levi a descendant of the levites and he gives three elements by which this is done water oil and blood in the old testament uh there are water purifications that are done baptisms if you will in the old testament they&#39;re translated in the king james version washings where you dip yourself in water in the hebrew mikvah a baptismal tank where you go under the water to symbolize your willingness to repent of sin and be cleansed by god oil is used as a symbol of sanctification and then blood is used for consecration the blood atonements consecrate us from sin blood is sometimes mixed with other things and used for part of the atoning process the oil and and the water all of it even in the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer uh mixed with the water and the oil all of that is part of the sanctifying processes of god in the old testament interestingly it&#39;s the washings that give us the the precedent that leads to the new testament so when john the baptist comes on the scene and says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand be baptized this is not something new this is part of old testament jewish custom and religion they understand exactly what he means according to jewish law you can be baptized in moving water like a river uh you can be baptized in a fresh water lake that is spring fed but you don&#39;t get baptized in an ocean you don&#39;t get baptized in the dead sea uh you can be baptized in a stone tank a mikvah and we know archaeologically that uh the homes of jewish people in jerusalem in the time of christ had a tank in it a mikvah tank at qumran where the dead sea scrolls were copied there&#39;s a mikvah uh there were mikvahs as you went up the steps into the temple where you could stop and baptize yourself before you went into the temple now that was jewish baptism not christian baptism they weren&#39;t baptized in the name of christ they weren&#39;t baptized testifying that jesus was the messiah the savior it was merely an act of purification an act of saying i want to be right with god i am willing to repent and my sin and confess my sin and this act of baptism is is a washing a cleansing experience that symbolizes the inner cleansing of the spirit of god in my heart and life and so john the baptist comes calling them to be baptized why did jesus submit to that he said to fulfill all righteousness it was not that jesus was being baptized as a confession of faith in himself it wasn&#39;t christian baptism we&#39;ll see later on that john&#39;s baptism was not christian baptism because you have some disciples of john the baptist in acts the 19th chapter who have moved away from israel they&#39;re living in ephesus and they don&#39;t even know yet that jesus rose from the dead or that the holy spirit has come and they re-baptized them in water in the name of jesus christ showing us that christian baptism begins in the bible only from the day of pentecost onward that everything that was done up to that point was done in accordance with old testament procedure and that&#39;s what you have here in this passage as well the priests were set aside in a unique relationship consecrated to the service of god himself and then you not only have the way to the holy one which is sacrifice but you also have in the book of leviticus beginning in chapter 11 the way of holiness which is sanctification and from chapter 11 to chapter 27 the emphasis in the whole book of leviticus is there are right ways and wrong ways to approach god right ways and wrong ways to deal with physical uncleanness and spiritual uncleanness you get this emphasis that cleanliness is next to godliness it comes right out of the pages of the old testament in these levitical laws in these cleansing procedures the idea is that you have a clean heart and the symbol of that are clean clothes and a clean body what is god trying to do he&#39;s trying to protect them from disease he&#39;s trying to extend their lifespan to give them a happier life a life of blessing we can read these laws and these restrictions and say to ourselves oh what a terrible thing they&#39;re bound up by all of these restrictions they can&#39;t eat ham or pork or pig meat of any kind well of course not in the old testament it was dangerous to their health they didn&#39;t understand how to cook out the parasites that were in it in those days all of these laws are not designed to make them miserable all of these laws are designed to bring the blessing of god on them and of these laws none is more important than the emphasis on the day of atonement in the 16th chapter take your bible and turn to leviticus chapter 16 and notice what it says there the lord spoke to moses after the death of the two sons of aaron who died when they approached the lord improperly nadab and abayu and the lord said to moses tell your brother aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark or else he will die because i appear in the cloud over the atonement cover over the mercy seat this is how aaron is to enter the sanctuary he&#39;s to bring a young bull for a sin offering a ram for a burnt offering he&#39;s to put on the sacred linen tunic uh the linen under garment he&#39;s to wear the ephod the garment of the priest the linen sash the linen turban the sacred garments etc he is to come into the entrance of the tent of meeting into the tabernacle and he&#39;s to bring two goats with him according to verse eight one will be the scapegoat for the other and he goes on to explain this procedure that on the day of atonement you don&#39;t just casually wander into the holy of holies whenever you want to you don&#39;t come into that most sacred place only the high priest can come only aaron only he can come on the day of atonement even moses can&#39;t go the other priest can&#39;t go and he&#39;s to come with two animals he sacrifices the bull first of all for the sins of the nation then he has a he has two lamps or two goats they&#39;re called a scapegoat you shed the blood of the one and spare the other you sacrifice the one and take the blood of the one and sprinkle it on the ears of the scapegoat and then the one goes on the altar of sacrifice the other one that has the broad sprinkled on it is chased out of the camp never to return it symbolizes the idea with it when blood atonement is made the sin is driven away it&#39;s chased away the scapegoat was not to return they literally as time went on would drive the animal over a cliff eventually to make sure it died so that it could not come back and spoil the symbolism and just sort of wander back in that the whole idea of the day of atonement was a high and holy day a day of blood sacrifice of blood atonement and the animal that died was the blood was taken collected placed on the top of the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant for the sins of the nation of israel for the people the scapegoat driven out of the camp to its death and does not return and no one was to be in the tent of meeting from that point on from the time that the high priest stepped into the holy of holies they were to empty the sanctuary and they were to make it a solitary place a solemn assembly a serious sacrifice a day of repentance a day of confession a day of national atonement a day that is still very sacred to the jewish people even to these days and then if you&#39;ll notice in your outline points a and b sanitation had to do with purity of the body clean food clean bodies clean clothes the day of atonement had to do with national cleansing of sin and then the laws of sanctification had to do with the purity of the soul the laws of the priesthood who could be a priest how he was to conduct his ministry and then the worship festivals of the jewish people and even the regulations that had to do with the year of jubilee there was a sabbath year that was to be given to god they were told farm the land for six years and every seventh year on the sabbath year let the land rest god&#39;s crop rotation program to preserve the land and they acknowledged it for a while but not long in fact they end up ultimately in the babylonian captivity for 70 years because the bible said that they owed god 70 years of sabbaths that they had not let the land rest that they had not followed this prescription in the law and then every 50th year on the year of jubilee it was the year that you cancelled all debts that prisoners were set free that everyone was given a second chance to start over again you you constantly see even in the laws and the regulations and the details of the old testament that god is a god of love and grace that god is the god of the second chance that god is reaching out to his people again and again and again saying even though you have failed me there is a way into my presence there is a way into heaven there is a way of salvation there is a way that you can approach me you come through the blood sacrifice you come confessing your sins you come acknowledging your need for me and you come and worship the true and living god a god you cannot see a god who is not represented by a statue or an idol a god who shows himself powerful on your behalf in your life a god who intervenes in history a god who blesses his people a god who redirects them when necessary and changes the course of history this is the god of the bible and the worship festivals of the lord are then clearly designated for us in the book of leviticus beginning in chapter 23. the feast is a time of rejoicing a time of great festival before the lord and he begins to lay out for us a series of feasts that they were to follow some prescribed here in exodus and in leviticus others that were added later but if you look at the feasts they each seem to have a kind of fulfillment in the new testament the passover feast when the death angel passed over fulfilled in the death of christ who dies at the very moment the passover lambs are being sacrificed the feast of first fruits a few days later the first fruits of the spring harvest that symbolize the resurrection of christ who is the first fruits from the dead not the first person to rise from the dead but the first person to rise from the dead who is never to die again who lives forever and then the feast of pentecost uh the the feast that was to come 50 days after passover that feast that was to represent the time of their rejoicing in the harvest with the lord sometimes referred to as the feast of weeks the day when the holy spirit came on the early church at pentecost a jewish festival right out of the old testament and then there are three that don&#39;t have any immediate fulfillment in the new testament the feast of trumpets that ushers in the new year rosh hashanah some say that because there is a trumpet associated with the rapture the trumpet will sound the voice of the archangel will shout the dead in christ will be raised and we that are alive and remain will be caught up together with him that perhaps it symbolizes in some way the coming of christ the new era that will be ushered in at the rapture then the day of atonement the day of the atonement for the sins of israel a time of national conversion that the new testament says will come one day when all israel will yet be saved and the feast of tabernacles where they recreate their experience in the book of numbers in the wilderness that while they&#39;re on the wilderness journey living in tents they set up a tent to memorialize this experience the jewish people still do it today they&#39;ll put up a tent in the backyard in the house or on the back porch and actually live in the tent for uh the whole time of the feast of tabernacles because this too is recognized as the time that god tabernacled among them that the god who lived in the tent met with those people who lived in the tent as well it&#39;s a reminder of the wilderness journey but it also in many cases may prefigure the coming of the great messianic kingdom when the messiah shall return and the king will live among us again and will bless the people of israel again and they&#39;ll come ultimately to the final fruition of all of the predictive prophecies of the glory of god and the blessings of god for the nation of israel now like everything in the bible you you have to not make the bible say more than it&#39;s saying but you don&#39;t want to make it say less than it&#39;s saying either it is obvious that in the first three in passover the firstfruits in pentecost there is an obvious parallel to what happened in the first coming of christ and many believe in the last three trumpets atonement tabernacles there is a parallel to what will happen in the second coming of christ as well later on the jewish people would add to this list two other feasts the feast of purim and the feast of hanukkah which comes close to our christmas time purim is added at the time of esther when they cast lots poor prim to try to annihilate the jewish people but instead of the jewish people being annihilated esther with great courage goes before king xerxes and finally delivers the people of israel from anti-semitic persecution and extermination and in response to what happened they celebrate the feast of purim to this day as a time of great rejoicing it comes in the winter time and it&#39;s just a time of great festivity in the jewish synagogue everybody dresses up and throws candy and cheers on the victory of the jewish people during the time of queen esther and then in the inner testamental period when the jews under the maccabees revolted against the greeks that were trying to close down the temple in the days of antiochus epiphanes and they won a tremendous victory they expelled the gentiles they cleansed the temple re-establish the worship of god they have a feast of lighting of candles in celebration of the fact that the light of god is returned to the temple again from the days of the maccabees then you get the feast of hanukkah that is added to the calendar of jewish religious festivals even unto this day christians have always respected those jewish feast days those jewish festivals those worship times as very special times when they met with god and we recognize that in our worship of god those times are very significant as well and very important to us that we too want to meet with god that we too must take seriously our relationship to him that we do not just tritely barge into his presence with a kind of a hi here i am but we acknowledge oh god you are god and i am coming to you through the blood of jesus christ your son the savior that died for me my access into your presence is through him i do not come in my own name i come in his name i do not come in my own good works i come in spite of my sin through the blood of jesus christ that cleanses us from all sin the pictures of the old testament shout to us of the truths of the new testament that there&#39;s a right way and only one way to come into god&#39;s presence the book of leviticus says much about the priesthood and there is an incredible parallel that is given to us notice it in your notes and on the screen the old testament priests entered into a earthly tabernacle but jesus christ enters into a heavenly temple the old testament priest once a year could go into the holy of holies but jesus went in once for all he shed his own blood he made his own sacrifice and it settled the issue of sin forever the old testament priest had to go beyond the veil to stand in the presence of god but jesus christ has rent the veil from top to bottom to give us access to god&#39;s presence the old testament priest had to make an atonement for his own sins first of all but jesus made atonement for our sins because he is the sinless son of god the old testament priest went in on the authority of the blood of bulls and lambs and goats but jesus went in on the authority of his own blood what an incredible contrast jesus christ fulfills the types the pictures the illustrations of the old testament priesthood but he goes far beyond it he is both the priest and the lamb of sacrifice he sacrifices himself the sinless son of god who has made sin for us the apostle paul says who died in our place and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all the prophet isaiah said and when the judgment of god fell on him christ is both the atoning sacrifice the lamb that dies in our place and the high priest who makes the sacrifice who can offer himself unto the father who can say not my will but thy will be done who from the cross in his humanity can say i thirst who from the cross in his humanity can say my mother take care of her john she&#39;s your mother but from the cross in his deity who can say father forgive them they know not what they do who from the cross in his deity can say to the thief on the cross today you&#39;ll be with me in paradise who from that cross and his humanity will cry my god why have you forsaken me because the judgment of our sin falls upon him but in his deity from that cross who can say father into your hands i commit my spirit it is finished paid in full the atonement has been made the savior has died the triumph is secure oh yes his heels are bruised the body is crushed but he has crushed the head of the serpent he has defeated the power of the devil he has paid for our sins once and for all jesus has triumphed over sin he has triumphed over satan he has triumphed over death and the last enemy shall be put aside and jesus christ shall be lord and king and god and priest forever hallelujah what a savior and the old testament points us to him and says it&#39;s all about him our high priest our coming king our lord our savior jesus the christ

[Music] the book of leviticus takes its name from the tribe of levi the tribe of moses the tribe that was set aside by god to become the priests of israel right in the middle of the five books of the law is a book that no longer continues to tell the story of what is happening for the most part oh there&amp;#39;s a brief interlude about the death of natab and abihu etc but for the most part the book of leviticus is a book of priestly offerings and sacrifices of the religious uh life of the jewish people it&amp;#39;s a kind of a ecclesiastical sort of a book that tells you how to do your religion in the old testament what it means to be a priest who can be a priest how do you function as a priest how do you dress as a priest what are the laws of cleansing both physically and spiritually the laws of purification god is emphasizing in the book of leviticus the whole theme of holiness in leviticus the picture of christ is that of the atoning sacrifice you know leviticus is that one book that when you say i&amp;#39;m going to read through the bible this year in a whole year and you read genesis and it&amp;#39;s pretty good and you read exodus and it&amp;#39;s got your attention and all of a sudden you get into the book of leviticus and it&amp;#39;s one sin offering after another one sacrifice after another and you just go okay i&amp;#39;m out of here i i don&amp;#39;t get it well let me help you get it okay it&amp;#39;s pretty simple really all of these offerings remind us that we need a better offering that we too need an atoning sacrifice the new testament reminds us that the old testament was our school master to bring us to christ not just our school teacher but the school master was the one that went and got the child from the family and walked him to school to make sure that he had his homework done that he got his lesson together that he was ready to go for the day so to speak the old testament is our school master that walks us to christ and says to us you need a better sacrifice a better atonement a better blood offering a sinless savior you need a better king a better judge a better priest etc it keeps driving us to the person of jesus christ now in leviticus itself the main theme is sanctification if you really are saved and you&amp;#39;re believers and you believe in the lord and you&amp;#39;re trusting him for salvation how is it that you are to live right in response to that what does it mean to be a holy or sanctified people set apart people a people specially dedicated unto the lord and the book of leviticus speaks to us about those issues the authorship questions again are basically the same as we have seen before if we ask the basic questions who wrote the book the conservative view is moses he claims to be the author of the book when did he write it sometime after 1445 bc during the time of the exodus in the early part of the wilderness journey to whom did he write at the israelites where were they presumably at mount sinai why did he write it catch that as instruction for holy worship and holy living all of that is vital to the message of leviticus now take your bible and turn to leviticus chapter 1 verse 1. every time we come to one of these old testament books i&amp;#39;m always going to take you to the first verse if you want to know what&amp;#39;s going on start at the beginning don&amp;#39;t begin at the middle of the book start at the beginning notice in this case the story just keeps rolling along the lord called to moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting or in other translations the tabernacle they have now built the tabernacle as the place of worship for god and now the lord speaks to moses from this place and says to him speak to the israelites and say to them when any of you brings an offering to the lord bring your offering as an animal either from your heart or from your flock and if the offering is a burnt offering then here is how you are supposed to do it and you have in these early chapters of leviticus the basic offerings described the burnt offering the grain offering the fellowship offering the sin offering etc each offering is to be an expression of your way to the holy one each offering is to show that i&amp;#39;m willing to come into the presence of god not by my own works not in my own sinfulness but i come voluntarily into the presence of god and if we outline the book of leviticus we could call the first part of the book the way to the holy one and the way is sacrifice a blood atonement the sacrifices are divided into two basic categories first of all the voluntary offerings in chapters one to three that have to do with our offense to god if i have sinned against god i can offer a burnt offering a meal or a grain offering a peace offering or a fellowship offering in other words if i&amp;#39;ve sinned against god i&amp;#39;ve got to go into my herd and get a lamb take it to the tabernacle to the priest lay my hands on the lamb and say all right i did it got mad yelled at my wife cussed the dog kicked the cat whatever i&amp;#39;ve sinned i have failed you confess and acknowledge your sin and you bring the animal that is the appropriate sacrifice both for your sin and for the financial level at which you are living and you take the animal to the temple and admit this to the priest and they kill the animal instead of killing you they shed the animal&amp;#39;s blood instead of shedding your blood the animal dies in your place and in the old testament the blood of the sacrifice is then applied to the altar as a covering for sin it doesn&amp;#39;t remove your sin the blood of jesus christ does that in the new testament it wipes our sin away but in the old testament it merely covered over the sin so that god would see the blood instead of the sin so to speak now god obviously saw the sin and knew the sin but god is aware of what we do wrong in order to judge what we do the bible says the lord does not look upon sin no he doesn&amp;#39;t look upon it approvingly but he obviously sees sinners and what they do he sends the prophets to confront the sinners and say straighten up and repent he knows what our sin is the blood atonement is a covering when somebody sins something has to die the animal dies in the old testament as an atonement for your sins now that means for most of us every time i sinned in the old testament i got to go into my flock get an animal which i&amp;#39;m no longer going to be able to use for anything else i&amp;#39;ve got to take that animal to the priest to the temple i&amp;#39;ve got to confess my sin and the animal dies well for some of us that would have been a lot of trips to the priest that would have been a lot of dead animals the death of the animal was to remind you of the seriousness of the sin it was to remind you of the consequences of the sin that in all of these religious rituals in the old testament god is saying to us i am a holy and just god loving and forgiving yes but not willing to forgive your sins without the blood atonement abel learned that way back in the book of genesis it was the blood sacrifice that god was looking for adam and eve learned it in the garden of eden when he slew the animals and covered their inadequacy when he makes that first predictive promise that i&amp;#39;ll send somebody into the seat of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent he is predicting the atoning power of the sacrifice of jesus christ now when jesus says to his disciples in luke the last chapter the 24th chapter the 44th verse that the old testament is all about me the law is all about me then we ought to expect that these sacrifices and these symbols and these priestly orders and these religious rituals are pointing to the person of jesus christ the burnt offering had to be slain the dead carcass was laid on the wood the fire was lit they didn&amp;#39;t burn and torture the live animal they burned the dead carcass the animal is burned to ashes consumed up to god completely totally from which the jews get the word holocaust a sacrifice that is totally completely consumed unto god in their experiences in nazi germany they apply that sacred term from the old testament to themselves in a unique way they don&amp;#39;t they really don&amp;#39;t like anybody else to say well i&amp;#39;ve been through a tough time with my mother-in-law that was a real holocaust no no not to them it wasn&amp;#39;t it has to have sacred religious significance and certainly in the old testament it has all of that the burnt offering was the basic sin offering that you were to make to god i have sinned against you and offended you and you along god here&amp;#39;s the animal that dies in my place i can&amp;#39;t eat it i can&amp;#39;t touch it i can&amp;#39;t take the skin from it it is yours completely jesus comes in the new testament as the lamb of god without blemish oh you don&amp;#39;t just take the worst little runny little animal you have and offer that to god it has to be a perfect one and jesus comes as the sinless son of god without sin he is able to be made sin for us the new testament says he takes our sin upon himself he bears our guilt and our iniquities according to isaiah 53 the judgment and chastisement of our peace is upon him he dies as a lamb before the slaughter jesus went to the cross not as a martyr to a cause not as a victim of circumstance not as some squealing screaming victim yelling let me go i&amp;#39;m innocent he goes deliberately and says for this reason i was born i came into the manger raised in the carpenter&amp;#39;s shop so that ultimately i could dine across born in a barn dies on a cross that he might ultimately receive the sin of all mankind poured upon him hallelujah what a savior he has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves he has done for us what the old testament cannot do that&amp;#39;s why the book of hebrews calls his atonement a better sacrifice his atonement speaks forgiveness not judgment his atonement removes our sins it doesn&amp;#39;t just cover them in each of these offerings the offender must come before god at the door of the tabernacle and say i have sinned he must confess and acknowledge and admit his sin and so in the new testament if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins we cannot come to god and act like i&amp;#39;m perfect i&amp;#39;ve never done anything wrong i have no problems at all but if you want a little sacrifice i guess i could admit i don&amp;#39;t know you come saying i did it i have sinned i have failed i am responsible and then you&amp;#39;re in a position to receive salvation as a gift of god&amp;#39;s grace so even in the old testament we see the grace of god they&amp;#39;re not just saved by keeping the law and keeping the ten commandments they can&amp;#39;t humanly do it they can&amp;#39;t keep all of the hundreds of commandments that are given in the old testament if i have to be perfect in order to get into heaven and nobody&amp;#39;s going to make it but it&amp;#39;s in the imperfection of it it&amp;#39;s in the failure of human ability to keep the law that we realize we need forgiveness we need atonement we need a savior not only does the book of leviticus give us uh offerings and sacrifices for our offense toward god but it also gives us a series of offerings for our offense toward mankind and interestingly these are automatically required of us their compulsory offerings in chapters four through seven and then the description uh later of the trespass offering or the guilt offering that if you have sinned against your fellow man if you have trespassed against him or violated him in some way if you are guilty of something that is wrong you&amp;#39;ve got to make things right with people as well on the one hand you make things right with god on the other hand you make things right with people both are required by god both are necessary my offenses toward god my offenses toward my fellow man god requires both at our hands now there are descriptions of how you can do these things in the book of leviticus there is a grain offering that can be brought there is a wave offering where you wave the grain at god in a kind of offering of joy and celebration unto the lord but ultimately in all of these offerings god is pouring out his blessing on us willing to forgive our sins willing to wipe the slate clean if you will willing to give you another chance another opportunity you see the old testament understands something about human nature that people are sinners and sinners are eventually going to do what they&amp;#39;re going to sin against one another they&amp;#39;re going to trespass against one another and they&amp;#39;re going to sin against god therefore there are offerings to resolve the sin against god and offerings to resolve our sin against our fellow man as well the whole idea of making things right with god and making things right with people comes right out of the old testament itself right out of the bible in ancient cultures there were primitive ideas about all of this kind of thing that that gods were angry and uh hated you and wanted to kill you if they had the opportunity to and they were just waiting for the chance to do it and you&amp;#39;re constantly trying to appease the wrath of these gods and sort of manipulate the gods to being on your side but the god of israel is totally different the god of israel says in essence i want to know you personally i want to know you face to face heart to heart life to life i know there will be times you&amp;#39;ll sin against me and here are the offerings you need to bring there are times you&amp;#39;ll sin against your fellow man here are the offerings that you need to bring you need to make things right with me and you need to make things right with each other you see it&amp;#39;s not enough when i have sinned against somebody to say well god i&amp;#39;m sorry because god&amp;#39;s going to turn right around and say good then go to your brother and make it right with him go to him and resolve the problem heart to heart face to face it takes an incredible amount of humility and faith to do that but that&amp;#39;s exactly what god wants us to do in every situation oh i&amp;#39;m not going to him to excuse his behavior or my behavior i&amp;#39;m simply going to say i know what i did was wrong i&amp;#39;ll let god deal with your heart but what i did was wrong and i have sinned against you and i am truly sorry and i do want to make it right and when we do that the character and the heart of god speaks loudly through us it doesn&amp;#39;t just speak through our successes that&amp;#39;s part of it but god also speaks through our pain and our heartache and our failure to say to people that knowing me is the real thing this is the real deal this is what the heart of god is really all about that the offerings are described and prescribed and uh even demanded of us and then the the order of the priests is set up for us as well from chapter eight on he sets aside aaron and his sons who are to be the priests of israel and he gives them the means by which they are to do this that the levites are to be set aside as the tribe of the priests that you consecrate certain people for the priesthood the priest is called by the hebrew term the cohen somebody with the jewish name of cohen today is probably a descendant of the priests or somebody with the name of levy or levi a descendant of the levites and he gives three elements by which this is done water oil and blood in the old testament uh there are water purifications that are done baptisms if you will in the old testament they&amp;#39;re translated in the king james version washings where you dip yourself in water in the hebrew mikvah a baptismal tank where you go under the water to symbolize your willingness to repent of sin and be cleansed by god oil is used as a symbol of sanctification and then blood is used for consecration the blood atonements consecrate us from sin blood is sometimes mixed with other things and used for part of the atoning process the oil and and the water all of it even in the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer uh mixed with the water and the oil all of that is part of the sanctifying processes of god in the old testament interestingly it&amp;#39;s the washings that give us the the precedent that leads to the new testament so when john the baptist comes on the scene and says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand be baptized this is not something new this is part of old testament jewish custom and religion they understand exactly what he means according to jewish law you can be baptized in moving water like a river uh you can be baptized in a fresh water lake that is spring fed but you don&amp;#39;t get baptized in an ocean you don&amp;#39;t get baptized in the dead sea uh you can be baptized in a stone tank a mikvah and we know archaeologically that uh the homes of jewish people in jerusalem in the time of christ had a tank in it a mikvah tank at qumran where the dead sea scrolls were copied there&amp;#39;s a mikvah uh there were mikvahs as you went up the steps into the temple where you could stop and baptize yourself before you went into the temple now that was jewish baptism not christian baptism they weren&amp;#39;t baptized in the name of christ they weren&amp;#39;t baptized testifying that jesus was the messiah the savior it was merely an act of purification an act of saying i want to be right with god i am willing to repent and my sin and confess my sin and this act of baptism is is a washing a cleansing experience that symbolizes the inner cleansing of the spirit of god in my heart and life and so john the baptist comes calling them to be baptized why did jesus submit to that he said to fulfill all righteousness it was not that jesus was being baptized as a confession of faith in himself it wasn&amp;#39;t christian baptism we&amp;#39;ll see later on that john&amp;#39;s baptism was not christian baptism because you have some disciples of john the baptist in acts the 19th chapter who have moved away from israel they&amp;#39;re living in ephesus and they don&amp;#39;t even know yet that jesus rose from the dead or that the holy spirit has come and they re-baptized them in water in the name of jesus christ showing us that christian baptism begins in the bible only from the day of pentecost onward that everything that was done up to that point was done in accordance with old testament procedure and that&amp;#39;s what you have here in this passage as well the priests were set aside in a unique relationship consecrated to the service of god himself and then you not only have the way to the holy one which is sacrifice but you also have in the book of leviticus beginning in chapter 11 the way of holiness which is sanctification and from chapter 11 to chapter 27 the emphasis in the whole book of leviticus is there are right ways and wrong ways to approach god right ways and wrong ways to deal with physical uncleanness and spiritual uncleanness you get this emphasis that cleanliness is next to godliness it comes right out of the pages of the old testament in these levitical laws in these cleansing procedures the idea is that you have a clean heart and the symbol of that are clean clothes and a clean body what is god trying to do he&amp;#39;s trying to protect them from disease he&amp;#39;s trying to extend their lifespan to give them a happier life a life of blessing we can read these laws and these restrictions and say to ourselves oh what a terrible thing they&amp;#39;re bound up by all of these restrictions they can&amp;#39;t eat ham or pork or pig meat of any kind well of course not in the old testament it was dangerous to their health they didn&amp;#39;t understand how to cook out the parasites that were in it in those days all of these laws are not designed to make them miserable all of these laws are designed to bring the blessing of god on them and of these laws none is more important than the emphasis on the day of atonement in the 16th chapter take your bible and turn to leviticus chapter 16 and notice what it says there the lord spoke to moses after the death of the two sons of aaron who died when they approached the lord improperly nadab and abayu and the lord said to moses tell your brother aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark or else he will die because i appear in the cloud over the atonement cover over the mercy seat this is how aaron is to enter the sanctuary he&amp;#39;s to bring a young bull for a sin offering a ram for a burnt offering he&amp;#39;s to put on the sacred linen tunic uh the linen under garment he&amp;#39;s to wear the ephod the garment of the priest the linen sash the linen turban the sacred garments etc he is to come into the entrance of the tent of meeting into the tabernacle and he&amp;#39;s to bring two goats with him according to verse eight one will be the scapegoat for the other and he goes on to explain this procedure that on the day of atonement you don&amp;#39;t just casually wander into the holy of holies whenever you want to you don&amp;#39;t come into that most sacred place only the high priest can come only aaron only he can come on the day of atonement even moses can&amp;#39;t go the other priest can&amp;#39;t go and he&amp;#39;s to come with two animals he sacrifices the bull first of all for the sins of the nation then he has a he has two lamps or two goats they&amp;#39;re called a scapegoat you shed the blood of the one and spare the other you sacrifice the one and take the blood of the one and sprinkle it on the ears of the scapegoat and then the one goes on the altar of sacrifice the other one that has the broad sprinkled on it is chased out of the camp never to return it symbolizes the idea with it when blood atonement is made the sin is driven away it&amp;#39;s chased away the scapegoat was not to return they literally as time went on would drive the animal over a cliff eventually to make sure it died so that it could not come back and spoil the symbolism and just sort of wander back in that the whole idea of the day of atonement was a high and holy day a day of blood sacrifice of blood atonement and the animal that died was the blood was taken collected placed on the top of the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant for the sins of the nation of israel for the people the scapegoat driven out of the camp to its death and does not return and no one was to be in the tent of meeting from that point on from the time that the high priest stepped into the holy of holies they were to empty the sanctuary and they were to make it a solitary place a solemn assembly a serious sacrifice a day of repentance a day of confession a day of national atonement a day that is still very sacred to the jewish people even to these days and then if you&amp;#39;ll notice in your outline points a and b sanitation had to do with purity of the body clean food clean bodies clean clothes the day of atonement had to do with national cleansing of sin and then the laws of sanctification had to do with the purity of the soul the laws of the priesthood who could be a priest how he was to conduct his ministry and then the worship festivals of the jewish people and even the regulations that had to do with the year of jubilee there was a sabbath year that was to be given to god they were told farm the land for six years and every seventh year on the sabbath year let the land rest god&amp;#39;s crop rotation program to preserve the land and they acknowledged it for a while but not long in fact they end up ultimately in the babylonian captivity for 70 years because the bible said that they owed god 70 years of sabbaths that they had not let the land rest that they had not followed this prescription in the law and then every 50th year on the year of jubilee it was the year that you cancelled all debts that prisoners were set free that everyone was given a second chance to start over again you you constantly see even in the laws and the regulations and the details of the old testament that god is a god of love and grace that god is the god of the second chance that god is reaching out to his people again and again and again saying even though you have failed me there is a way into my presence there is a way into heaven there is a way of salvation there is a way that you can approach me you come through the blood sacrifice you come confessing your sins you come acknowledging your need for me and you come and worship the true and living god a god you cannot see a god who is not represented by a statue or an idol a god who shows himself powerful on your behalf in your life a god who intervenes in history a god who blesses his people a god who redirects them when necessary and changes the course of history this is the god of the bible and the worship festivals of the lord are then clearly designated for us in the book of leviticus beginning in chapter 23. the feast is a time of rejoicing a time of great festival before the lord and he begins to lay out for us a series of feasts that they were to follow some prescribed here in exodus and in leviticus others that were added later but if you look at the feasts they each seem to have a kind of fulfillment in the new testament the passover feast when the death angel passed over fulfilled in the death of christ who dies at the very moment the passover lambs are being sacrificed the feast of first fruits a few days later the first fruits of the spring harvest that symbolize the resurrection of christ who is the first fruits from the dead not the first person to rise from the dead but the first person to rise from the dead who is never to die again who lives forever and then the feast of pentecost uh the the feast that was to come 50 days after passover that feast that was to represent the time of their rejoicing in the harvest with the lord sometimes referred to as the feast of weeks the day when the holy spirit came on the early church at pentecost a jewish festival right out of the old testament and then there are three that don&amp;#39;t have any immediate fulfillment in the new testament the feast of trumpets that ushers in the new year rosh hashanah some say that because there is a trumpet associated with the rapture the trumpet will sound the voice of the archangel will shout the dead in christ will be raised and we that are alive and remain will be caught up together with him that perhaps it symbolizes in some way the coming of christ the new era that will be ushered in at the rapture then the day of atonement the day of the atonement for the sins of israel a time of national conversion that the new testament says will come one day when all israel will yet be saved and the feast of tabernacles where they recreate their experience in the book of numbers in the wilderness that while they&amp;#39;re on the wilderness journey living in tents they set up a tent to memorialize this experience the jewish people still do it today they&amp;#39;ll put up a tent in the backyard in the house or on the back porch and actually live in the tent for uh the whole time of the feast of tabernacles because this too is recognized as the time that god tabernacled among them that the god who lived in the tent met with those people who lived in the tent as well it&amp;#39;s a reminder of the wilderness journey but it also in many cases may prefigure the coming of the great messianic kingdom when the messiah shall return and the king will live among us again and will bless the people of israel again and they&amp;#39;ll come ultimately to the final fruition of all of the predictive prophecies of the glory of god and the blessings of god for the nation of israel now like everything in the bible you you have to not make the bible say more than it&amp;#39;s saying but you don&amp;#39;t want to make it say less than it&amp;#39;s saying either it is obvious that in the first three in passover the firstfruits in pentecost there is an obvious parallel to what happened in the first coming of christ and many believe in the last three trumpets atonement tabernacles there is a parallel to what will happen in the second coming of christ as well later on the jewish people would add to this list two other feasts the feast of purim and the feast of hanukkah which comes close to our christmas time purim is added at the time of esther when they cast lots poor prim to try to annihilate the jewish people but instead of the jewish people being annihilated esther with great courage goes before king xerxes and finally delivers the people of israel from anti-semitic persecution and extermination and in response to what happened they celebrate the feast of purim to this day as a time of great rejoicing it comes in the winter time and it&amp;#39;s just a time of great festivity in the jewish synagogue everybody dresses up and throws candy and cheers on the victory of the jewish people during the time of queen esther and then in the inner testamental period when the jews under the maccabees revolted against the greeks that were trying to close down the temple in the days of antiochus epiphanes and they won a tremendous victory they expelled the gentiles they cleansed the temple re-establish the worship of god they have a feast of lighting of candles in celebration of the fact that the light of god is returned to the temple again from the days of the maccabees then you get the feast of hanukkah that is added to the calendar of jewish religious festivals even unto this day christians have always respected those jewish feast days those jewish festivals those worship times as very special times when they met with god and we recognize that in our worship of god those times are very significant as well and very important to us that we too want to meet with god that we too must take seriously our relationship to him that we do not just tritely barge into his presence with a kind of a hi here i am but we acknowledge oh god you are god and i am coming to you through the blood of jesus christ your son the savior that died for me my access into your presence is through him i do not come in my own name i come in his name i do not come in my own good works i come in spite of my sin through the blood of jesus christ that cleanses us from all sin the pictures of the old testament shout to us of the truths of the new testament that there&amp;#39;s a right way and only one way to come into god&amp;#39;s presence the book of leviticus says much about the priesthood and there is an incredible parallel that is given to us notice it in your notes and on the screen the old testament priests entered into a earthly tabernacle but jesus christ enters into a heavenly temple the old testament priest once a year could go into the holy of holies but jesus went in once for all he shed his own blood he made his own sacrifice and it settled the issue of sin forever the old testament priest had to go beyond the veil to stand in the presence of god but jesus christ has rent the veil from top to bottom to give us access to god&amp;#39;s presence the old testament priest had to make an atonement for his own sins first of all but jesus made atonement for our sins because he is the sinless son of god the old testament priest went in on the authority of the blood of bulls and lambs and goats but jesus went in on the authority of his own blood what an incredible contrast jesus christ fulfills the types the pictures the illustrations of the old testament priesthood but he goes far beyond it he is both the priest and the lamb of sacrifice he sacrifices himself the sinless son of god who has made sin for us the apostle paul says who died in our place and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all the prophet isaiah said and when the judgment of god fell on him christ is both the atoning sacrifice the lamb that dies in our place and the high priest who makes the sacrifice who can offer himself unto the father who can say not my will but thy will be done who from the cross in his humanity can say i thirst who from the cross in his humanity can say my mother take care of her john she&amp;#39;s your mother but from the cross in his deity who can say father forgive them they know not what they do who from the cross in his deity can say to the thief on the cross today you&amp;#39;ll be with me in paradise who from that cross and his humanity will cry my god why have you forsaken me because the judgment of our sin falls upon him but in his deity from that cross who can say father into your hands i commit my spirit it is finished paid in full the atonement has been made the savior has died the triumph is secure oh yes his heels are bruised the body is crushed but he has crushed the head of the serpent he has defeated the power of the devil he has paid for our sins once and for all jesus has triumphed over sin he has triumphed over satan he has triumphed over death and the last enemy shall be put aside and jesus christ shall be lord and king and god and priest forever hallelujah what a savior and the old testament points us to him and says it&amp;#39;s all about him our high priest our coming king our lord our savior jesus the christ

Transcript for:Lecture on Leviticus

Transcript for:
Lecture on Leviticus