we're making our way nicely through the pentateuch and remember we have one book five volumes i'm gonna i'm gonna exhaust this point until it gets into your head one book five volumes and we have 39 books in the old 27 books in the new um and so we can consider these books but for now we're considering them volumes so we're going to get into the third volume which is which is leviticus and again i've said there are times where you're reading your bible track you know starting in january somewhere around late february mid-february you get into leviticus and you're like oh my lord what am i going to do with this thankfully though thankfully at the osu we have a leviticus class so in addition to this pentateuch class you can get into leviticus and get going i mean let's just look at some of these levitical laws here let's see um just randomly here we go if a woman approaches any animal and lies with it you shall kill the woman and the animal they shall surely be put to death their blood is upon them if a man takes his brother's wife it's in purity he has uncovered his brother's nakedness they shall be childless you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or your father sister for that is to make naked ones relative they shall bear the iniquity so you have a lot of purifying laws here laws of purity etc etc we're going to get into in just a second and we don't i think leviticus sometimes gets a bad rap because it's like well we have just the random sets of laws and what are these here for and these are weird strange laws but we want to put this into context with everything that we've been learning thus far okay we've gone through genesis we've gone through exodus it brings us to leviticus and we're learning about the holy character and the holy nature and the holy the holy countenance of god and how us as his people or israel at that time as his people were invited to live amongst a god who had made a provision for covenant to take place so that he could dwell in the tent of meeting and be among the people of israel and how holiness is what separates god from the other false gods that were in the earth at that time the other small gods with a smaller case g and how he is separate and we need to really note that god's character his and his moral requirements and his ethical requirements of us are something that we shouldn't take lightly and make fun of and say oh ha ha ha but we should see that it is important to be the way god has called us to be as his people um and that's what leviticus is going to drive home and be in god's people because remember god switched his plan oh i don't see switched it but he mo like like it's a plan b or something that's not what i mean by that but i mean that he instituted another part portion of the plan and that is through abraham all the nations of the earth shall be blessed not just with material blessings but they shall see how the law of god is good and how the law of god is holy and then eventually through through them came the chris through the came the scriptures came christ and then comes redemption and and comes the law so let's gear up for this what are the key ideas in leviticus well number one is the holiness of god we're talking about that the purity of the covenant community so you have these purification laws et cetera et cetera and so purity in the sense of from whose perspective from god's perspective this gets into the fact that there are just absolutely moral absolutes in the universe and the world and those moral absolutes come from god and that's how we explain why some things are right and some things are wrong some things are good and some things are bad while we can have both sides because god instituted those moral laws and he says be holy from uh for i am holy which says in first peter chapter 1 verse 16 the apostle peter repurposes that which we'll talk about we see the principle of substitution in the sacrificial ritual the principle of mediation in the service of priests and the redeemer of time by means of the liturgical calendar which gets into the sabbath and gets into the year of jubilee which we'll talk about leviticus provides a handbook designed to instruct the hebrew community in holy worship and holy living so they might imitate god's holiness and enjoy the presence of god's blessing and so so we should see that there is a standard for living and there is a standard for worship we should take this into consideration when we live for god and when we worship god that there is a standard for doing that and i would suggest and posit that living in a postmodern society has made that somewhat of a challenge because now in post modernity people deconstruct everything and they construct nothing and they say why do we have to worship god like this why do we have to worship god like that and there's sometimes no absolutes about anything because of post-modernity and post-modernism but god's word gives us a standard and gives us a framework in leviticus for understanding how to live and how to worship and we'll see how to carry those over into our times here in the new testament into after christ has come we see a manual of priestly regulations and duties handbook of instructions prescribing practical holy living and laws and instructions that are to transform hebrew slaves into a kingdom of priests into a holy nation that god is making something out of them which is really wonderful his redeeming power so again we don't look at the law something that is bad and something that is terrible but it's the apostle paul said it's something that's holy and it's something that's good the writing of the book the book the hebrew title remember we we learned that the hebrews would look at the first two words in the hebrew text and call that the title of the book and so the hebrew title is called and he called that's the title and he called because that's how it opens up which is taken from the opening text in one verse one um but the word leviticus is a greek word from lutik lutticon which means pertaining to the levites okay it means pertaining to the levites so that would refer to the levitical priesthood the authorship is prescribed to moses and again it's written between 1440 and 1400 bc let's give a little background to this when does leviticus take place it originates in the revelation of yahweh given to moses from the tent of meeting and at mount sinai during israel's 11 month sojourn at sinai after the exodus from egypt so we want to look at leviticus as part of the narrative that we see in exodus kind of mix it in there as well because it's coming out of that narrative the hebrews um and and so we're going to see in just a second how interrelated leviticus is to exodus and so we need to connect them and make a connection in our mind that what's taking place in leviticus goes hand in hand with the narrative that we find in the book of exodus the hebrews are not alone in the ancient near east and they're practices of ritual purification and animal sacrifice so at the time of the hebrews you see animal sacrifices and ritual purifications that we'll see those were not something that was just an invention of israel alone other polytheistic religions in mesopotamia at that time were doing such things but the hebrew religion okay judaism was different from the other near eastern religions in palestine and wherever they were at in their sojourn um it was different and this is why it was different number one was the idea again of monotheism we won't keep going on that but we've covered that in past lessons but it was strict monotheism you make no other gods before me a very strict rule that is to be focused and emphasis on one god but then we see the idea of direct revelation and theophany that god has appeared to mankind he has made himself known he has done this directly he has done this directly and he has shown himself to man and then he's not a god as we saw in genesis that just puts simply man as an afterthought but he counts man as he actually has created the world and he's created the earth for mankind and number three what separated is the understanding and origin and impact of human sin so in in the religion of the hebrews at that time they understood that where we came from and we also understood that not only where we came from but origin of sin and the origin of the fall the hebrew religion had a highly ethical and moral nature in contrast to the canaanite fertility cult so we look at some of i think it's safe to say that when you look at some of the prohibitions we had just read you know thou shalt not sleep with your sister-in-law and let's see do i still have this up here if a man takes his brother's wife a man lies with his uncle's wife he not shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister your father's sister which would be we'd call your aunt a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness um so this are things that i am absolutely certain that the canaanite fertility cults at that time were doing so maybe in your world you don't see that a lot and you say oh well that's such a random thing who would do that well in that time those were the practices and behaviors that were going on and there may have not have been in most cases presumably an ethic against those types of things and so they're incorporating this ethic here so that israel could be holy and could be righteous and so what what leviticus is doing is revealing to us something about god so we take the laws we put them together we realize that yahweh is holy and that he is righteous and that is contrasted to the capricious behavior of the pagan cults and the pagan deities at that time and another thing that is very important that we'll see is or we're seen as you read through leviticus is that leviticus prohibits child or human sacrifices which is extremely important now we have human rights today human rights currently in 21st century here in uh you know 2020 2021 moving further i would say is i'd be happy to say is probably better than they have been in the past in any period of time we really have human rights and that same things are perfect there's very much still slavery that takes place in the world as human trafficking but our laws on human rights are have definitely improved over the years um and we don't i don't know of anywhere where human sacrifice is allowed um but it was back then and that's and that's what they did and so you'll see that god is very much against human sacrificing but i think that speaks to some us today in the 21st century in regards to the topic of abortion god is very much against the taking of a human life i think that the levitical laws and things of this nature shows that there is a concern for human life and protecting human life i think that's where we as a society need to be repentant of is because of the atrocities that we have with abortion thankfully deoshu is very outspoken against abortion and the atrocities of of killing the innocent lives of babies because our god has a standard and our god values life and this goes back to the genesis account when god instituted told man to be fruitful and to multiply and to replenish the earth he put in create he put in a way of production human reproduction he said in course the laws of nature and we're not to disrupt these with our own selfishness and our own selfish desires and god is a god who has mankind in mind and having mankind in mind and being for us he wants us to respect life the way that he respects life and values life and honors life as well and that doesn't just go for abortion that goes for respecting others treating others well and being respectful humanity because god is a moral god and god is an ethical god and as a result we need to be moral and we need to be ethical people because not only is god holy but god calls his people to that holiness to that holy standard and if we don't answer the call to that standard then how can we be known or recognized as god's people and today in this age that is such a difficult concept because we're living in a time where people want to challenge the absoluteness of morality that has to do with postmodernism and the way of thinking that attempts to deconstruct you know who's to say that this is a bottle why can't this be a can why is it a bottle et cetera et cetera and it just deconstructs absolutes well leviticus shows us the absolute holiness of god the purpose and message of leviticus is summed up in leviticus 11 chapter chapter 11 verse 44 to 45 which i will conveniently go to for i am the lord your god consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for i am holy you shall not defy yourselves with any swarming thing that quarrels on the ground from the lord who brought you about of egypt to be your god you shall therefore be holy for i am holy now god is reminding them at this time that i am your god so god is claiming these people he's claiming the israelites to hebrews for himself and he's saying that you are my people and this is how you shall live so he gives them an invite to holiness it's broken up into two parts we can look at leviticus in two parts number one outlines the requisite procedures for worship in yahweh we find that in chapters one through ten the second part is prescribes how the covenant people of god are to translate the idea of holiness into daily living so we see the outline of of standards and then we see how that would look like in daily in daily life it should be noted that leviticus is an extension of the narrative found in exodus chapter 25 through 40. so again it's we put the context of what's happening in leviticus into exodus chapter 25 and 40. so in your mind take leviticus and place it into exodus exodus concludes with the assembly and dedication of the tabernacle and leviticus we be begins with god addressing moses from the ten of meeting about prescriptions for the worship and service to take place there now something that's interesting that i want to point your attention to is leviticus chapter one verse one now this shows what i'm about to show you shows its connection with um the book of exodus so now i'm going to look it up in the kjv now i don't use the king james version all that much not like i have a vendetta against it and i'm trying to rid the earth of king james bibles however i think it gets it right here because in leviticus 1 verse 1 this is how it begins it says and the lord called unto moses and spake to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation saying et cetera et cetera the esv which i really like doesn't have that doesn't have that there that doesn't have that conjunction there it omits it i think that conjunction is important because the and connects leviticus back to exodus and that suggests to us that exodus and ludovicus should be read as a single record and i think that's fair to say um and that even is even easier to believe when we look at the pentateuch being one book and that exodus and leviticus have a very acute relationship with one another and i think that and makes that case that's right there so you're not wrong if you have an esv or another bible that omits it an niv i know it does not have it in there that you can take and and draw it in there if you want i don't think you're adding to the word of god by doing that i think you're making an exegetical decision for something that can be argued either way it just shows exodus and leviticus are a single record and should be considered together another thing that we can know is that we see the appearance of the divine oracle formula now we looked at this back in exodus which is quote the lord said to moses unquote we see that in exodus chapter 31 1 exodus 33 1 but we also see it in leviticus chapter 1 verse 1. but then we also see the concluding formula and this is one we didn't talk about but we'll bring it up here which says moses did as the lord commanded that's that's phrase moses did as the lord commanded we see this in exodus 40 16 we see it in leviticus 8 4 amongst other places and so again the same language is being used the same formulas are being used and so this supports the case for the interrelatedness of access leviticus something that should be considered and something that should be read the presentation of legislation in leviticus is ordered in connection with the construction and dedication of the tabernacle so those work hand in hand let's look at some divisions and perhaps the structure just a little bit more deeply before we move on leviticus 1 7 documents the nature and the purpose of hebrew liturgy for the tabernacle including the sacrifices and the requirements for the priesthood in charge of worship chapters 8 and 10 includes legislation cast within historical narrative chapters 11 17 address various impurities inhibiting proper worship and community relationships chapters 17-25 can constitute practical guidelines for holy living so that religious and secular life might not be mutually exclusive might not be mutually exclusive okay um and chapter 26 to 27 reinforced the covenantal context of the levitical legislation there's a few points that i want to expound about here and that simply is how chapters 17 and 25 constitute guidelines for holy living um and sort of put that into play and how we see that in our daily life so that israel's religious and secular life are not mutually exclusive meaning that they should be combined with one another because the way that we worship god should affect the way that we live for god and the way that we live for god goes hand in hand with how we worship god and so that's something that's important another thing i should say with all of these regulations or i should say laws that we see it's important to note that god is very much into us respecting other people and respecting him and having a having a mutual healthy ethical relationship one with another and where we demonstrate respect and then we demonstrate honor to others because when we are respectful to god and not just god but also to his creation we're being respectful to creation and i think that's very important there's a song a proverb off the top of my head i can't think of exactly which one it is but it talks about how a godly man is kind to his beast now that's important because i think what that verse says more specifically is that how we treat god's creation is important to god and shows what we think of god and so how we treat our fellow man showing respect one to another is part of our worship and leviticus gets to that so it shows a definite ethical and moral guideline for being the people of god and god is very much a god of order and god is very much of god of doing things the proper way and there are things that god that are very clear in the text that we need to make sure that we're obedient to those things major themes let's get to looking at now that we've looked at the structure sort of go through some major themes here and pick up on those to see what we can can come up with number one again number one major theme in leviticus is holiness first peter 1 16. i'll read that here uh well let's see what we can um look at before we go to first peter let's go to leviticus 11 and go to 44 to 45 which we've already looked at from the lord your god consecrate yourself be holy for i am holy now peter repurposes this i shouldn't say he repurposes it he quotes it in first peter 1 16. my logos is not going there my bible software is i'm gonna have to type it first peter 1 16 says um for we'll go to verse 14. as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance but as he who called you as holy you also be holy in all your conduct as it is written you shall be holy for i am holy and this goes back to what i'm saying is that there are moral ethics and moral absolutes that we have as believers that we need to make sure that we pay attention to and so we see that there's instructions for holy worship and we see that there are instructions for holy living chapters 1 to 10 give procedures for approaching the holy one of god in worship in chapters 11 to 27 prescribe how those join covenant covenantally to god translate the idea of yahweh's holiness to the sphere of daily living which is what we in fact just talked about so the question then at this point becomes since we're talking so much about holiness just exactly what does holiness mean now there are all sorts of definitions i know jerry bridges book the pursuit of holiness that's a pretty good book there's a lot of books on holiness and i don't think we have to over complicate this for the sake of having a pedantic definition or some definition that's all together unique i think we can keep it pretty simple and just suggest that holiness means separation in that case separation from the mundane and separation two service or worship of yahweh who himself is separate from creation and monday meaning that we've come out of the world we've come out from among the nations or israel i should say in this case comes out from the among the nations and in doing so they are their terminology that's introduced called common and uncommon clean and unclean so when you look at levitical law based upon levitical law everything that you see in life can be put into one of these categories is either holy or common okay so you have holy things and you have common things so if you took something that's common so hopefully things are set apart they're set apart for the service of the lord but then you had common things if you took these common things you could categorize them into two you could say they're clean or you could say that they were unclean clean things could become wholly through sanctification they could be unclean through pollution holy things could become profaned and be uh could become common and can become unclean i know it kind of gets confusing but then if something became unclean it could be cleansed and then consecrated to be made holy again all of this points back towards having more absolutes and having in the holiness of god common things in persons devoted to god become holy only through the mutual efforts of human activity and consecrating to the lord as as sanctifier uncleanness could be caused by disease contamination sin or infection and this could only be cleansed by ritual washing and sacrifice okay now this is something that um well let me let me read two more things here and then let me we'll go to the new testament see how the apostle paul understood this the presence of god the prince of the holy spirit resided in the israelite camp within the tabernacle it was imperative to prevent the unclean from coming into contact with the holy and failure to prevent the contamination would result in death now paul understood again these things through the new covenant and he looked at them through the terms of the new covenant if we look at romans chapter 5 6-14 for while we were still weak at the right time christ died for the ungodly for scarcely will one let me see if i got the right verse yes 6-14 for scarcely for will one die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die but god showed his love for us and that while we were sinners christ died for us therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall be saved from the wrath of god for and while we are enemies we were reconciled to god by the death of the son much more now that we are reconciled we shall be saved by his life more than that we also rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ by whom we have received reconciliation therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin so death spread to all men because all sin for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given but sin is not counted where there is no law yet death reigned from adam to moses even those who were whose sinning was not like the transgression of adam who was a type of the one who was to come and so you see here that the apostle paul he's using the idea of unclean and clean to talk about how all human beings are unclean as a result of adam's sin so this is something that points again to what's going to take place under the gospel so you have this idea of unclean uh unclean and because of sin we are made unclean but then in first corinthians chapter 6 9-11 you see in verse number 9 the apostle paul tells the corinthian turns do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god be not to see neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revelers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god now watch what he says but such were some of you but now you are washed now you are sanctified you are justified in the name of the lord jesus christ by the spirit of god so what is the apostle paul doing paul is drawing back an echo and he's echoing back the old testament echoing something to us here and suggesting that the redemptive work of christ cleanses and sanctifies the sinner and makes the sinner holy so he's going back there to the old testament so we understand that holiness comes to a believer as the believer in uh yields to christ in the spirit of god in obedience to the teaching of righteousness found in scripture and so these are things that are brought to us but in the new testament we understand them in light of understanding clean and unclean common and uncommon throughout the levitical law another major theme that we have in the levitical law or the book of leviticus is sacrifice we find ritual sacrifice was the only way people could gain access to god the hebrew sacrificial system was distinct because it was divinely revealed and was directed toward the goal of personal and communal holiness so we see that there are two types of sacrifices there were those sacrifices that were spontaneously given uh to god and as a result of pr in prayer thanksgiving um for blessings and favors received so those were serial offerings those were peace offerings and then we find those demanded by yahweh in the on the occasion of sin burnt offering sin offerings and of course guilt offerings but again we can kind of make connections with this and see how they point to the new testament the blood on the altar was necessary for the symbolic cleansing of god's presence so let's read hebrews chapter 9 21-22 i'll go there which says here in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and the vessels used in worship indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins but in verse 24 it suggests here well read 23 thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for christ has entered not into holy places made with hands nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own and so this verse continues to go on chapter 9 of hebrews to show how christ's work on the cross was much better than the blood that was on the altar but as it may to understand what the significance of the blood on the altar was we can see that the altar was purged by the blood on behalf of the offer whose sin or impurity had richly tarnished it so someone would put the sacrifice upon the altar and the blood would purify the altar because the person's sin had made the altar impure so the blood in the levitical law acted like a disinfectant and it would decant he would it would decontaminate the sanctuary and render the offer clean um and so you see the importance of blood it makes clean and that's why we'd say the blood of christ washes because the idea was the blood of the sacrifice made the altar clean the blood of christ makes us clean but even as it may animal sacrifices was were never intended to save people they just preserved people people in the old testament were counted righteous on the basis of faith in yahweh and faithfulness to the covenant and its stipulations etc etc so the importance of sacrifices at that time was bringing a sacrifice what it did was it's revealed the disposition of the heart and that goes back to being truly repentant being sorry for sins we see evidence in psalm chapter 51 verse 16 to 17 about how the heart played an important part the state of man's heart played an important part for a sacrifice of sins it says for you will not delight in sacrifice or i would give it you are not pleased with burnt offerings the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god you are pleased with then you will not despise and so it wasn't enough at that time just to make a sacrifice for sins there had to be something in your heart that god that desired repentance and the desired mercy from god et cetera et cetera and so all of this idea of clean unclean sacrifices blood on the altar that makes clean blood that acts like a disinfectant all of it again points the redemptive work of christ and we look at we're just reading again in 2nd corinthians chapter 3 about how the veil is the inability to see okay because because of not knowing christ the inability of to see christ's work in the old testament but when we've encountered christ and we have the illumination of the holy spirit in our heart we should see that these things in leviticus are speaking to us of the new and living way and are speaking to us about christ for instance jesus is a lamb who takes away our sins we see that in john chapter 1 29-34 which is interesting the next day he saw jesus coming and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world now look at how things are taking place here i mean if you're john the baptist understand the significance of what would have taken place you have considering everything that took place from genesis chapter 1 the fall of man we could go through the whole litany again the whole timeline sin is continually increasing cain kills abel lamech boasts of his sinfulness the tower of babel the flood moses comes out the ark sin has not been destroyed sinfulness begins to expound okay then we have the tower of babel over there okay first no then the tower of babel and then god calls abraham abraham does this all the sinfulness that we find in the patriarchs et cetera we move on into exodus now we have the levitical law sin continues to increase we're going to then you get into the rest of the old testament the israel's sin the sins of the judges the sins of the kings et cetera et cetera and then you move into here comes christ after the exilic period after the inter-testamental time with no silence then you have john the baptist and he finally sees christ he says behold the lamb of god which takes away the sins of the world that is such a profound key statement that we see made when you consider everything that is taking place because he's saying that what christ's sacrifice can do on the cross is we just read through all this understanding clean and unclean common and uncommon how his blood is finally going to be able to handle this sin problem it's not going to be just a disinfectant that cleanses the altar it's going to be a disinfectant that cleanses the heart of man and finally deals with the sin problem hebrews chapter 10 10 through 12 talks about the crucifixion being a once and for all sacrifice that this sacrifice appease god and so we're told christians are off and in first peter 2 5 christians are to offer up spiritual sacrifices to god through christ which include cheerful giving praise and thanksgiving evangelism selfless service to christ jesus etc etc so this whole idea of ritual and sacrifice is made use of throughout the new testament and so we see that christians offer up spiritual sacrifices to god through christ we see that in first peter chapter two verse five and those would include cheerful giving philippians 4 8 praise and thanksgiving hebrews 13 15-16 evangelism romans 5 15 16-17 selfless service to christ we find in romans chapter 12 1-2 another major theme that we find in leviticus is the idea of sabbath rest and a sabbatical year now most of us that i know don't keep the sabbath and i'm not suggesting that we should but it's important to know that the sabbath ordinance reminded israel that yahweh is the creator keeping a day holy for israel meant rest and refreshment to humankind and animals and sanctify the human endeavor so that in the other six days of the week one might truly eat drink and find enjoyment in one's labor as a gift for god as a gift from god now isn't it interesting that when we don't take time for ourselves how disorderly our life becomes because we're trying to take into our hands everything that we are doing as though we're the ones that are in control of our lives but by resting we acknowledge that god is in control we give him a day that he deserves and we acknowledge him as the creator instead of trying to do things in our own intuition and by the fruits of our own hands now this is interesting because in second chronicles chapter 36 verse number 21 it suggests here uh in verse 20 i'll read he took them exile into babylon those who had escaped from the sword and they became servants to him and his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of persia to fulfill the word of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its sabbath so we don't see that part of the reason why the israelites went into exile at that time during the during the exhibit period is because they failed to keep the sabbath but by keeping the sabbath they're recognizing god as holy and they're recognizing him as the one who is the creator of their life and so leviticus really puts into perspective the importance of practicing the sabbath and then not only that but there is also supposed to be a rest for the land on every seventh year and during that time the poor would glean from it and so then every sabbatical cycle there would come a time of jubilee which is every 49 years a sabbatical program would include the cancellation of debts relief of the poor and the release of hebrew slaves and so we see here that the sabbath rest and the sabbatical year are very important themes in leviticus and so all of this leviticus as we take it and we kind of put it into perspective from the rest of of what we're learning about the pentateuch we find the genesis access leviticus we have the beginning of of mankind his fall sin continues to increase judgment comes judgment doesn't get rid of the sin abraham comes god calls them abraham's call doesn't rid sin continues to move forward all the while there's mistakes going on but god is uplifting he's continuing forward his covenant plan that he has with abraham he's getting them over their obstacles exodus comes into play we have the israelites they're in they're in slavery in egypt god raises up moses he god reminds moses of his covenant problems that he has with abraham god is making himself a people he takes them into sinai and now he gives to them leviticus and leviticus now gives the law and it shows us things that are the best for mankind that are going to allow mankind to worship god and acknowledge him as creator which is the sabbatical law it also shows the importance of sacrifice those sacrifices that would disinfect the altar uh and disinfect it from its sin which pointed to jesus and pointed to christ and it shows mankind a way to be holy so now god is dealing with the moral and ethical needs uh moral and ethical characteristics so that we could become the holy people of god so if you look at it from perspective i mean we had these weird verses in the beginning but again that's the ethical and moral demands that god has for being his people and it's all in keeping with what god is formulating and how god is creating his plan to bring the messiah into the earth and make a people unto himself which he eventually is ex which that plan is extended to the gentiles and that's why we are the holy people of god today even though many of us are not jews we still partake of that because god has made a new and living way he did it through abraham he did it through his people and he extended to us and in looking at leviticus and all the different laws that we can't go through on this class but we can look at these and say god is orderly god is moral god is absolute and god has a standard both of living and worship so they're not mutually exclusive but rather we incorporate our worship and our personal life they're something that are supposed to be together because how we live affects how we worship how we worship affects how we live because we are the chosen people of god and that now brings us to numbers