We are starting Leviticus today. I know what you are thinking.... oh no not the boring laws... there is part of me that response the same way. But from these laws we see Jesus, the need for his death and resurrection, and we gain a deeper understanding how our faith is related to the Jewish faith of those who came before us. Leviticus (of the Levites in Greek) or Wayiqra (and YHWH [God's name] called in Hebrew) is the third book of the Torah (also called Pentateuch) and was most likely written in its final form in the 6-5 century BCE, right about the time that God's people were going into captivity in Babylon. In it we find guidelines on living as the holy people of God, given to the people do frame their relationship with God. It is largely case law on the first three of the ten Commandments in Exodus 20. In other words, this book is designed to help people be mindful of God in all aspects of life and live in such a way that the cultures around them know that they are different.
Being a father has really helped me understand how God parented his people Israel at this time, and how he parents us as well. My son Gabriel needs a clear set of structures... If he does A, then B will happen. If I don't follow through on B, then there is a whole host of other capital letters conspiring in his little mind to emerge. One need only spend time with any toddler to know that, at the core, humanity is sinful and disobedient. Groups of people grow in similar ways to children. Israel was an infant nation needing clear guidelines on how to live. God had claimed this people and made it abundantly clear to the world through the Exodus that this rag-tag group of nomads was his. His adopted infant needed to learn what it meant to represent him in the world. This was his plan all along, that this people would be the line through which God would bring the whole world into the orbit of his love through Jesus.
In Leviticus 1-4 we are introduced to the official sacrificial code. Burnt offerings and grain offerings, fellowship offerings and sin offerings, all sorts of offerings for people to maintain their covenant relationship with God. The bottom line is this. Jesus fulfills all of these in such a way that they never need to be repeated. This system was intended to remind the people of their sinfulness and the need for God's grace and mercy to forgive their sin. The sacrifice of the animal represented an economic reminder that disobedience is costly. As they laid their hands upon the head of an animal and slaughtered it, they were also reminded that they justly deserve death for their wrongdoing. Hebrews 10 is a helpful tool in understanding Jesus role as the ultimate sacrifice...
"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
Hebrews 10:1-4
God still wants us, as his adopted children to look different from the world around us. That is done differently today than it was thousands of years ago. There are times in our life when we need the clear instruction to keep us looking different from the world around us. In Jesus we are feed to live past the minimum requirements. We are freed to love God, and our neighbor not by the compulsion of rules, but because of gratitude for the sacrifice made once and for all on our behalf. In this way, it is time for us to grow-up in grace and live outwardly the calling of the Gospel to share God's love with those around us.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen
