Five Things to Keep in Mind as You Read Leviticus

Photo by Filip Filipov on Unsplash

No doubt, Leviticus can be a challenging read for Christians. Yet, we all agree that we should read it and that it is somehow helpful for us.

In this short article, I want to suggest five things to keep in mind as you read Leviticus.

1. Time, Place, and People.

Sometimes, we can go overboard with a concern for context, which seeks the help of the History Channel above material conveyed by the Holy Spirit. When I suggest prioritizing context, I primarily mean scouring the Bible to see what breadcrumbs God has already provided.

With Leviticus, we should keep track of two things:

First, God initially gave Leviticus to a particular people. Genesis begins with the origins of humanity but quickly narrows to trace the family history of one nation. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were original texts for Israel’s use and would only eventually be adopted by believing Gentiles as well.

Second, the events in Leviticus pick up right after the events of Exodus and in the same setting—the people are still camped at Mt. Sinai.

When we think of Mt. Sinai, our minds should go to some key events. It was at Mt. Sinai that God gave the Ten Commandments. It was also here where the people doubted God’s goodness and turned to construct and worship a golden calf. Perhaps most significantly, it is at Mt. Sinai where God covenants with the people (Exodus 19:5-6) and promises to treasure them and make them holy. If the Sinaitic covenant declares a future holiness for Israel, Leviticus works to peel back the layers of how God would accomplish that holiness. In other words, Leviticus doesn’t sidestep the good stuff we encounter in Exodus—it is the natural next step in the sequence of thought.

2. Narrative in Nature

Some scholars frame Leviticus as a set of laws with a little narrative sprinkled in. While it may feel that way when we go about boiling it down for the “meat,” we’ve got to ask the question. If God intended for Leviticus to be nothing but a law code, why is there any narrative at all? The narrative matters—God doesn’t make mistakes and isn’t arbitrary in constructing the Scriptures.

In my estimation, Leviticus is primarily narrative, with large sections dedicated to recapturing God’s verbal interaction with Moses. You’ll notice the phrase “the Lord spoke to Moses” is recycled repeatedly throughout the book. That phrase is repeated 33 times in Leviticus (and 79 times in the Torah). Additionally, big sections are dedicated to putting some instructions into practice immediately, such as the consecration of Aaron and his sons.

When we remember to zoom out and situate Leviticus in the middle of the unit that is Genesis through Deuteronomy, we have better eyes to see its place within that bigger narrative unit that details the origins and development of God’s people.

3. Dead Center For a Reason

Speaking of the Torah, let’s look a little more at the placement of Leviticus. It’s the middle book in a five-volume set. That may not seem like much, but in the ancient world, writers used a device called chiasm to communicate significance. A chiasm works by framing things in telescoping parallelism like this:

A

            B

                        C

                                    X

                        C

            B

A

With chaism, sentences, paragraphs, or sections can be framed together like two sets of mirrored stair steps pointing us to the same focal point. In other words, when we read ancient literature, we’re meant to zoom out, see the chiasm, and then zoom in on the X. That’s where God has lit up the brightest neon sign in an attempt to say, “Focus on this!”

Many scholars have observed that Leviticus sits in the middle of the Torah and should be the focal point. Going one step further, many point to Leviticus 16 as the theological center or the “X-marks-the-spot” destination, not only of Leviticus but of the entire Pentateuch. (see more here: The Shape of Leviticus: A Chiastic Motherlode)

In other words, while Genesis - Deuteronomy is filled with fundamental building blocks for our understanding (e.g., creation, sin, promise, rescue, moral codes, etc.), it may be that the first five books of the Bible are pointing us to most explicitly understand a concept that culminates in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus. And that concept is atonement.

4. Atonement is Everything

Contrary to popular belief, Leviticus is not meant to be a set of rules to keep us down (or bore us to death!). It’s not even primarily a set of generic rules for living a healthy life. The laws captured in Leviticus are pretty specific—and sometimes seem weird to our 21st-century sensibilities.

But remember, God is never random.

Think back to context. Leviticus is a snapshot from when the Israelites had no home and, more importantly, no working concept for their newfound religious freedom. God had rescued them from oppressive Egypt, but now God was cultivating a way for them to enjoy His presence.

In the latter part of Exodus, God gave the Israelites instructions on how to build the car (i.e., design plans for the Tabernacle, priestly garments, etc.). In Leviticus, God provides the operating manual—how to drive the vehicle. But don’t get it twisted. Leviticus is not simply a re-hashing of the Ten Commandments (already documented in Exodus).

Instead, Leviticus details God’s invitation for humanity to directly re-enter His goodness by giving ritual instructions for worship. And what do we see on page after page throughout Leviticus? Sacrifices upon sacrifices.

The Israelites portray the spiritual reality that exists for all of us. In the lineage of Adam and Eve, each of us has been banished from the garden—making our temporary home in the wilderness. And it’s in the wilderness that God has provided access back to Him—this is atonement. In Leviticus, God provides small expressions of atonement (e.g., burnt offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings, etc.; see Lev. 6-7). Yet, the primary expression is in the Day of Atonement, spelled out in Leviticus 16.

God prescribed the Day of Atonement as a once-a-year ritual for Israel. In it, two goats represented God’s act of renewing His relationship with the people. One goat was slaughtered as a payment for their sins, while the other was sent into the wilderness to depict the removal of their sins (you should google “propitiation vs. expiation”).

The Bible will clarify that ultimate atonement is found in Jesus. Still, before the time was right, God provided these progressive glimpses of redemption to come through procedures, as we see in Leviticus.

The lists of laws in Leviticus and the priestly order point us to see the magnitude of God’s holiness in relation to our sinfulness. Even more than that, the worship handbook of Leviticus created the mechanism for humans to exist in God’s presence at a time before once-and-for-all cleansing would take place for those who trust in the Christ.

What’s at the core of the mechanism of atonement? Blood

5. There’s Power in the Blood

Blood is the language of Leviticus. Allow me to force a metaphor … “blood” is pumping through the veins of Leviticus. Blood is mentioned at least 90 times, appears in over half of the chapters throughout the book, and serves several purposes.

First, blood is used to speak of the guilt of sinful people. For example, we see this in Lev. 20:9, “For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.”

Second, blood is constantly used to speak to the brokenness and frailty of humanity living in the fallout of Genesis 3. Harkening back to God’s initial killing of an animal to cover Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21), blood is the primary portrayal of sacrifice.

1:5. “Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”

Finally, blood is the substance of life according to the worldview of Leviticus. Chapter 17, in particular, drives this point home.

17:14. “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life.”

We see this point most clearly a few verses earlier in 17:11, where the Lord connects the blood-life concept to atonement.

17:11. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

Perhaps one of the most resounding emphases in Leviticus is that atonement is costly. The consistent visual and smell of blood was meant to sober and humble the people. When flooded by the intense repetition of “blood,” we’re meant to place ourselves in that setting.

Too often, as we read our Bibles, we can become callous to the gravity of sin and the cost of redemption.

As those who are privileged to have both the Old and New Testaments, we mustn’t take for granted the significance that Leviticus provides when we reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice.

His blood for ours. His life for ours.

His blood is a well that won’t run dry. There’s power in the blood.