Learning to Love Leviticus

I had the privilege of teaching the book of Leviticus to our CSBS class recently. Throughout my time working with the School of Biblical Studies program I have gained a great appreciation for the book but before I began my time here I am not sure that I had spent even ten minutes studying Leviticus in my whole life. It can be described in many ways, most of the descriptors used have a negative connotation; strange, boring, difficult to explain. It definitely doesn't garner a lot of attention these days BUT it should!

Context is always important, but we can often learn biblical truths, though they may be a little more simplistic, without a lot of context when reading the scriptures. This is not the case for the book of Leviticus. Leviticus without context is very difficult for believers to understand. For unbelievers the book of Leviticus taken out of context is used to discredit all the scriptures. So let's try and understand the context.

I am pretty sure we have all seen a super hero movie. Remember the stereotypical scene when the innocent, helpless girl/bus load of children is in some dramatic near death situation. There looks to be no escape. Suddenly, out of nowhere the superhero flies in and saves the day. That person that was rescued had heard rumors of this superhero's existence and now they had witnessed first hand the power of that superhero but the superhero had a mask on. Who was he? Was he good or was he bad? Israel was like that rescued person when Leviticus was delivered to them. They were at Mount Sinai right after the exodus from Egypt, about 600 years separated them from God's promise to Abraham. So they would have known of the promise God made and witnessed His power in the events of the exodus but they themselves knew very little about who God really was. Was he a good god? Did they need to appease him? They knew He had made a promise and they knew he was more powerful that the pagan gods and then came the message of Leviticus.

With this context in mind we can read Leviticus and understand that God was identifying himself to the Israelites. Keep in mind that the Israelites were very likely polytheistic and would have been trying to place Yahweh and understand his role amongst all the other gods that the pagans around them worshipped. The pagan worship practices were very perverse and were practiced in order to manipulate and/or appease their deities. These pagan deities were often angry and perverse beings that were selfish and immoral. So through the book of Leviticus God was setting himself apart from these pagan gods and calling His chosen people to seek holiness - BECAUSE HE IS HOLY.

As for all the seemingly crazy laws and rituals given to the people in Leviticus, they can still be difficult to understand. We all want to rationalize what we don't understand in the book and the fact that we can never fully understand the culture and daily lives of these people that lived around 3000 years ago means that we likely will never understand all of the mysteries of the book. After studying the book for a few months I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the laws are either related to hygiene or related to pagan rituals and God's desire for His people to be completely separate from the pagans around them. There are of course scholars who have spent decades studying Leviticus who you can look up and study their findings so that you can come to your own conclusions.

For those who might see Leviticus as God imposing impossible laws, or those who use it to identify God as legalistic and unable to be pleased, remember the order of the events! God delivered the people first and then gave them the law as a revelation of who He is. The law was never imposed on them, they were given a glimpse of who God is and then given the choice of whether to seek Him or not. The same is true today with Christ. God took the first step, He sacrificed His son for us and then made redemption from sin available to us. We adopt His good laws as we desire to worship and serve our heavenly father, never out of obligation.

I think today we are a lot like that rescued girl in the superhero analogy, we put a lot of focus on what was done to save us - Jesus, His death, His resurrection. Jesus definitely does deserve our praise but let's spend sometime getting to know our Superhero. So try giving Leviticus a read and see if you gain a deeper understanding of our HOLY GOD, who is GOOD and LOVING and FAITHFUL. And when you are reading Leviticus and come to realize how far you and I are from being able to commune with a holy God due to our filth and sin then remember the sacrifice of Christ and understand it with greater depth and appreciation.

The Torah!

The first month of the CSBS we spend primarily studying the Torah. I thought I might share with you some of what we are learning as a class.

Most of us are well versed in the narratives of the Genesis and Exodus. Leviticus is the book that often ends most of the 'I am going to read through the whole Bible' ambitions we might have. I hope providing a little background will help you grasp some deeper meaning next time you are spending time in any of the books of the Torah.

A lot of us still have in our minds the simple teachings we received as youngsters in Sunday school or what the media portrays as Bible stories. Simple teachings are great for children but many still see the narratives of the Bible through the perspective we were given by others. Just one example for your consideration might be the story of the great flood. It is for good reason that we look at the fun animals and happy side of the flood; since we are usually teaching it to children. In reality it was a horrible event. The amount of death and destruction is something we don't give a lot of thought to. Instead of smiling animals and rainbows it would be more accurate to imagine bodies of animals and people floating in filthy debris filled water, and then rainbows. More importantly the failure of man to be able to live in a way that honors our Holy God should hit hard.

It is vital to understand when the Torah was written. This will determine who the original audience of the books was and once that is understood we can go about interpreting the messages conveyed through the first five books of God's word. The content of the Torah was given to Moses by God after the miraculous Exodus and before the conquest of the promised land.

With the date of the Torah's writing being determined we must understand who the nation of Israel was at that moment in time. Genesis reveals the earliest details of mankind and the nation of Israel, the book describes the roots of a people group. The message was delivered to a homeless group who had just seen God's power in their escape from Egypt (remember the Bible was written for you BUT not to you). They were at a pivotal moment in their history when they needed to chose which direction to go, towards the promised land, an unknown path with much perceived risk and danger, or back to what was familiar to them, back to slavery in Egypt where they were mistreated but knew they had food and protection. Why did God deliver this message to these people at that time?

The ancestry of the nation of Israel is common with many of the people groups who live in the promised land. They had similar religious practices and cultures. The sacrificial system was definitely not unique to Israel, it was a custom that was inherited by Israel to use in worshipping God. Of course the book of Leviticus clearly sets apart the way that sacrifices would be done. So they shared their ancestry with people groups well documented to be extremely perverse in their pagan religious practices and they had most recently spent 400+ years soaking in the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. The Israelites would likely have known of the promises made to Abraham and his descendants but were separated by about 600 years from when the promises were made. It was a common middle eastern belief that gods were geographical, their powers were limited to certain areas. It is very likely that the Israelites had adopted many of the beliefs of the the cultures around them and were polytheistic with little understanding of who Yahweh was amongst the Egyptian and Canaanite gods.

After hearing about the history of their ancestors and witnessing the miraculous events of the Exodus these people had some bigs gaps to fill in their understanding of their identity as a nation and the identity of this god 'Yahweh'. Was this god different from the Egyptian or Canaanite gods? Why did Yahweh bring them to this place? How were they to respond to this God? The biggest question being, 'who is Yahweh?'.

God was defining himself to Israel and giving the nation of Israel it's own identity and purpose. Every part of the book was written to show that God is all powerful and He had chosen, protected and provided for Israel as He was fulfilling His promises to them and urging them towards trusting in Him and continuing on to the promised land. With that understanding then we can study these 5 books of the Torah and understand the intended message for those Israelites and further take the message and apply it to our lives today.