I've always been intimidated by Leviticus. And I've always kind of avoided it during my Bible study times, I mean I always intended to read it, just another time. Cause you know, it's a really long book of laws, and there are a lot of strange ones in there, like not trimming your beard, not eating crawling insects, not eating pig and how to bring sacrifices to God to atone for their sin, and I know that all of that stuff doesn't apply to us today, although I wasn't quite sure why. But recently I was prepping for Sunday Kidz, and I was watching this DVD that we're showing them in which singing puppets explained all about Leviticus and Old Testament law, obviously singing puppets must help me learn because suddenly I understood!
Basically Israel were God's chosen, holy nation, they were set apart for God, and Leviticus (and the other books of Law in the bible) is like an instruction book for them on how to be holy. The puppets asked the question, “What's with all the wacky rules and why don't we follow all of them today?” A good question I thought. Then they said that there were two types of law – ritual and ethical. A ritual is something we do over and over that reminds us of something important, lots of people have strange rituals, a popstar might have a random song or chant that they have to sing before they go on stage for example, or a football team might have a lucky sock, or something like that, that they all have to touch before they play a match. These things seem weird to us, but it means something to them.
In the same way the ritual laws that the Israelites followed seem weird to us now, but it meant something to them, it was a constant reminder to them that they were called to be a holy nation! For example, the not trimming your beard one – that's a massive reminder, permanently growing on your face that you are set apart for God! On the other hand the ethical laws, the ones like do not kill, or do not steal, still make a lot of sense to us today. Using the football pitch example, these are rules like don't trip anyone up, or punch any other players in the face – it's obvious why these rules are in place, if they weren't the game would not run smoothly! It's the same with the Bible – it's obvious why God would tell us not to kill each other – and these ethical laws are the ones that are reaffirmed in the New Testament.
You may have also noticed that the punishments in the Old Testament seem … extreme. The death penalty comes up a lot. Why are they so extreme? We know that God is holy, very holy, and the Israelites knew that God is holy too, but the other nations of the world didn't. The Israelites were called to be a blessing to all nations, and it was through their adherence to the law, and the extreme punishments for sins that other nations could see how holy God is, and also how serious sin is.
So why don't these rules apply to us any more? Well the Israelites were under the old covenant that God made with his people through Moses. But we are under the new covenant that God made with us through Jesus! This is why we no longer need to make sacrifices to atone for our sin, because Jesus' sacrifice was enough to atone for our sin once and for all!
So I have been inspired to start reading Leviticus, and I want to challenge you to do the same! Andrew advised me to do this by reading three chapters of Leviticus, then one chapter of Hebrews, because Hebrews teaches a lot about the new covenant and Jesus being our high priest. So that's what I'm doing. While I'm reading Leviticus I'm thinking about God, and how it shows just how incredibly holy he is – the Israelites had to follow all of these laws and make sacrifices continually just to be close to him! And even then none of them could enter the Most Holy Place where God's presence was. I'm also thinking about Jesus, feeling continually grateful to him for liberating us from the ritual laws, and thinking about how amazing it is that he has made us perfect before God. We don't have to make sacrifices to come close to him now, we can just walk straight into his presence, and more than that we are welcomed as sons and daughters of our heavenly father who loves us.
How awesome is that?!
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