The Theme of Leviticus
Last week we finished looking at Exodus. The theme of the book is redemption and we saw that it is God that does the saving. He has all the power and does all the actual work. Moses did not have the power to bring one plague. Moses could not make the death angel pass over those who applied the blood in faith. God redeemed Israel and God brought them out of bondage with a mighty hand.
However, we saw that God has ordained that some man be used in the process. There had to be a Moses. Someone who would simply go where God said, and say and do what God told him to say. God does all the redeeming; He is the one who delivers people from the bondage of sin.
But God has ordained it that He will use men in the process as tools.
But can’t someone find a track or bible and read it themselves and get saved. Yes. But someone had to leave the track or give them the bible. But what if they go buy a Bible themselves read it and get saved. Well some men had to die in the past so the Bible would be preserved. Someone had to print the copy.
And if truth be known somewhere in the past someone planted a seed and it was watered somewhere along the way or that lost person would never buy a bible.
So far we have Genesis – Man is a sinner who needs saving and God wants to save them.
Then we have Exodus – God redeems man and delivers those with faith from the bondage of sin, God does the work but has ordained that man is used in the process
And then comes what is arguably the hardest book in the Bible Leviticus. I think it is the least read book in the Bible. But it is important in many ways.
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
And that would include Leviticus. One example is that Leviticus teaches that there is more than one Sabbath. There is the weekly Sabbath and there are special holy days that are also a Sabbath. These High Sabbath days could fall on any day of the week.
Some were to fall on a certain date of the month which could be a Thursday for example. People who believe in good Friday have skipped Leviticus. They believe there is only the Saturday Sabbath so Jesus must have been crucified on Friday.
Jesus said He would rise 3 days later. He rose on Sunday so count backwards 3 days. Sat, Fri, Thur. So according to Jesus He died late Wednesday and was in the tomb before their day switched to Thursday.
This does not conflict with having to be in the tomb before the Sabbath because there were other Sabbath’s that happened on other days of the week. The New Testament even clarifies it by calling that Sabbath an High Day instead of calling it the weekly Sabbath.
There is no conflict between how long Jesus said He it would be before he rose again and the Bible saying He had to be in the tomb before the Sabbath. It was a High day Sabbath and not the Saturday Sabbath. And we know this because of Leviticus.
So there are important things in Leviticus, but what is the theme of Leviticus. That is what we are going to look at this morning. You will need to find the book of Leviticus in your Bible.
The book is named Leviticus because it contains the laws and ordinances of the levitical priesthood. The Theme of Leviticus is worship. How to approach God, How to fellowship with Him, and how to worship God.
And the order of the books makes sense. 1st Gen. you are a sinner in need of saving and there is a God who wants to save you. 2nd Exodus redemption. You apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts of your heart and are delivered from the control of the god of this world and the bondage of sin.
What comes after that. Leviticus. Worship. So the order is first realize you need to get saved, then get saved, and then worship God. That is the proper order for everyone. Then and now.
However, we have been freed from the yoke of the ceremonial law when all that it pointed to was fulfilled by Jesus. I am glad that I do not have to take animals to be slain at the tabernacle.
So we are not to worship in the same way as they did. However, there are principals that are taught that do apply and what the ceremonial law points to is timeless. There is much that we can learn from Leviticus.
Lev 1:3 If his offering [be] a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
The offering is to be of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle. What ever is done in religion must be done out of Love, it must be done with a free will if it is to be accepted. That is why man must have a free will. Forced love is not love at all.
Forced religion is morally wrong and never works. It does not count for anything. The people that God is giving these instructions to have been redeemed. Bought with a price. And the first thing that God has to say in the book whose theme is worship is that it must be voluntary.
It is the same for us today. You had a free will to get saved or not. And after you got saved you had a free will to get baptized or not. And after you get saved and even baptized you still have a free will to worship God or not. How close you get to God is a free will choice.
How thankful you decide to be for your salvation is up to you. How much you want to truly worship God is up to you.
So the first thing God has to say is that worship must be voluntary. And the first sacrifice in Leviticus pictures salvation. That makes sense. You must get saved before your worship is accepted. The lost cannot really worship God.
Lev 1:4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
He is to put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted as atonement for him. Putting his hands on its head was an acknowledgment that he deserved to die and that the animal was dieing in his place. He was to identify with the substitute death and accept it as making atonement for him. That is what placing his hand upon the offering signified.
It is the same with us. We need to identify with our substitute (Jesus) and accept His death as making atonement for us.
Lev 1:5 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD:
It was not enough to identify with the substitute. The substitute must die. Jesus could not just come to earth so we could identify with Him, he also had to die.
Lev 1:5 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that [is by] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Then the priests are to bring the blood and sprinkle the blood around the altar. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
Lev 1:6 And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.
Lev 1:7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire:
The burnt offering was put to the fire. Fire is a picture of judgment. The offering was put to the fire as a substitute for the person who brought it. Jesus was put to the fire of judgment in our stead on the cross. Jesus is our substitute.
Chapter one is about the burnt offering and you should be seeing that the burnt offering is a picture of the cross. The burnt offering is about getting saved.
It is very fitting that this offering comes first. You cannot worship God until you get saved. You cannot have fellowship with God and worship God until you get saved.
Chapter two describes the meat offering. The order is important. The burnt offering must come first. The burnt offering identified with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross more than all the others. The burnt offering was totally consumed on the altar. None was left. Christ bore all of our sins on the cross. Even the ones that we have not committed yet. All of our sins were in the future when He was on the cross.
The meat offering speaks more of fellowship, specifically by providing food for the priests.
Lev 2:1 And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be [of] fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:
The meat offering was of fine flour, with oil on it and frankincense.
Lev 2:2 And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, [to be] an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD:
Lev 2:3 And the remnant of the meat offering [shall be] Aaron’s and his sons’: [it is] a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
The priests are to take out a handful of the flour and burn it on the altar as a memorial. This was only a memorial of what had gone before to that altar which was the burnt offering. Part of our fellowhip with God involves remembering what He did for us on the cross.
The amount that is left is to be Aaron’s and his sons’. God provided that those who served at the altar should live upon the altar, and that they should live comfortably.
Aaron and his sons’ were not allowed to have a job. By God’s rules at that time those men had to serve God full time and were not allowed to do anything else. By necessity they must eat, and the Levites were to be the tribe to work in the tabernacle so they must have children to take over.
So they must be able to provide food for their children. The meat offering was one way that God had them provided for. It was thru the giving of God’s people. And this instruction is given in the book whose theme is worship. When they brought a meat offering they were giving something that was necessary for God’s work to go on.
Those men had to eat for God’s work to go on. Things are different today. Men are no longer under a rule that they cannot have a job. The Levites were not given any land when Joshua divided the land. Things are different today. A man can have land and other sources of income.
While some things are different today there is a timeless truth here. Giving is a part of worshiping God. God loves a cheerful giver. And God’s work still takes resources today.
While the resources needed are different, where they are to come from is the same. We no longer need people bringing food so I can eat.
Today we do not need flour mingled with oil so that my family can eat. Today we need stamps and tracts and John and Romans. Today we need to help the poor and the fatherless. Today we need to take part in getting the gospel out locally and around the world.
In the New Testament age those resources are still to come the same way as in Leviticus, thru the giving of God’s people. But that giving is to be done voluntarily and cheerfully out of Love for Jesus.
Lev 2:5 And if thy oblation [be] a meat offering [baken] in a pan, it shall be [of] fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.
They are to use unleavened flour. Leaven is a type of sin. Pride and hypocrisy swell like leaven, and malice and wickedness sour like leaven. There cannot be any sin in our fellowhip with God and our worship.
We need to be careful of sins that will spoil the acceptableness of our spiritual sacrifices.
Lev 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
Every meat offering is to be seasoned with salt. Christianity is the salt of the earth. We are to be the salt of the earth. All meat offerings are to have salt. The meat offering pictures fellowship with God. Without salt there is no fellowship with God.
Salt is a preservative. Salt fights corruption, decay, spoiling in food. Salt fights to keep the food pure if you will. When we worship God we are to always be working to keep our worship pure and free from corruption.
Chapter three covers the peace offering.
Lev 3:1 And if his oblation [be] a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer [it] of the herd; whether [it be] a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.
The order that the offerings are mentioned is important. It is mentioned third because to have peace first you must be saved (the burnt offering), and then you must have fellowship (the meat offering).
Look at back slidden Christians. They might have peace about going to heaven. You cannot loose your salvation. But backslidden Christians do not have peace in their walk with the Lord.
The peace offering could be a male or a female. This is one way to tell that this offering did not typify the atonement of Christ. This offering could be a female. The burnt offering had to be a male, thus typifying that Jesus would be a male.
Lev 3:6 And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the LORD [be] of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.
Even the peace offering had to be without blemish. There could not be sin involved. All worship is to be without sin.
What does that say about fleshly rock music in the church where they just jam for Jesus with a light show? That is not real worship.
Lev 3:8 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar.
Even though this was not a burnt offering the blood must still be sprinkled. This teaches us that in all of our offerings, in all of our worship, we must have our eye on Christ and His shed blood that was the propitiation for our sin. All of our worship must have its eye on Christ.
In another part of Leviticus we learn that the peace offering was divided between the altar, the priest, and the owner. This offering was a symbol of friendship and fellowship between God and man.
Lev 3:17 [It shall be] a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
God would not permit blood to be used or looked on as a common thing. He was teaching them to honor and respect the blood. We need to respect the blood that Christ shed. Many today are taking the songs that mention the blood out of their hymnals and out of their bibles. This is not of God because He taught us that we are respect the blood. There is power in the blood.
Chapter four describes the sin offering.
Lev 4:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD [concerning things] which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
Lev 4:3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.
The sin offering applied to everyone, even the anointed priest. His office would not excuse his sin. Even men of God must confess their sins to God.
This offering was for sins committed through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord. Not knowing is no excuse. You are still guilty and it needs to be confessed. Confession of sin is a part of worship.
This is one of the reasons that we have a prayer time. Say you have been doing a sin but did not realize it. And during the preaching of the word of God, the Holy Spirit convicts you of your wrong doing. Then you are to pray, and get right with God.
You cannot use the excuse of I did not know. You have still sinned. Ignorance is no excuse. You are not to say, now that I know I will no longer do it and that is it. It still needs to be confessed to God.
1Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jo 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Confessing sin and keeping our walk with God correct is a part of worship. And just to be clear you can pray and confess sin and keep right with God anywhere anytime. You do not have to only do it on Sunday. In fact it is a bad idea to limit getting right with God to only once a week and only during certain hours of the week.
The next several chapters cover the Trespass offering. The trespass offering was to restore fellowship because of lies, stealing or the like.
Through the instances relate to our neighbor they are called a trespass against the Lord because it is an affront to our Lord. How many people will not accept Christ or even consider it because of the shameful way some Christians conduct themselves.
In Leviticus we also have the anointing of Aaron and his sons. They had to be anointed with oil before they could serve. Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit. A man must receive the Holy Spirit before he can serve. And as we know you receive the Holy Spirit at salvation. So this is teaching that you must be saved before you serve.
In Chapter 10 two of Aaron’s sons offer incense with strange fire. They used fire that did not come from the altar, and only one priest was to offer incense at a time and they were both doing it at the same time.
This was in disobedience to what God had commanded them. They thought that they could worship God their way using their own rules. We have a lot of this going on today.
Fire then comes from the Lord and devours them. We can only worship God God’s way.
God was teaching his people obedience and that they are to worship Him by His rules.
Now they are down to 3 priests. They did not get replacement priests right away and there was no reduction in the work load. The work must still get done even if we are short handed.
In Chapter 11 we have rules about what they can eat. Not only did God’s rules pertain to the sanctuary and the Sabbaths, but also to the every day occurrence at their own table. This was to teach them that they are always under God’s authority every day. God is teaching them to not only be different from others in their worship, but also in the common actions of life. They were not to eat the same diet as their idolatrous neighbors. They are to be a peculiar people.
Even though we are under grace and are not subject to this diet, the principal of being a different and separated people still applies to us today. Not separated as in not talking or associating with the lost. Eating pictures partaking. Taking something in and making it a part of you.
We are to be separated as in not partaking of the sins of others and making them a part of us. Jesus was an example of this. Jesus sat and ate with publicans and sinners but Jesus never condoned their sin and Jesus never partook in their sin.
Jesus was separated from their sin personally, but sat and ate with them.
Chapter 13 has rules about leprosy. Biblical Leprosy is a type of sin and is considered uncleaness instead of a disease. That is why priests were employed and not the physicians.
If a person had leprosy they would have to go outside the camp. Fellowship with God was in the camp. The tabernacle was pitched in the center of the camp. This pictured that sin breaks fellowship with God.
They are not to have sin in the camp. Sin is not to be fellowshipped with and it has no place in worship.
Biblical leprosy was not an incurable disease. Miriam’s lasted only seven days. Chapter 14 states the provision for reestablishing fellowship.
When someone backslides into sin and looses their fellowship with God. It can be restored. God wants it to be restored.
We then have more rules about leprosy (which is sin) and have warnings about how it can spread.
Sin loves company and it is sin’s nature to want to spread.
The leprosy in the Bible can affect a man or a house or a garment. I have seen many a preacher get leprosy wrong. They say it is the modern leprosy that we know of today. But the modern leprosy cannot spread into a house or a garment. They get it wrong because like so many others they skip the book of Leviticus.
The leprosy in Leviticus represents sin. Sin does not care what it destroys. And no matter what form it takes, the sin was to be put out so that fellowship could be maintained with God.
In the remaining chapters we have a variety of rules that they were to live by. And over and over we read how they are to put a difference between the clean and the unclean. Over and over in the book of Leviticus God tells them to be holy, for I the Lord am holy.
Over and over He gives them this repetitious warning to be holy, to be separated unto God, to be different than the world around us. Sin is contagious and destructive and needs to be preached against.
And we see over and over in this book that the rules of fellowship with God do not only affect his sanctuary, but everything in their lives.
The theme of the book of Leviticus is worship of God and fellowship with God.
The word worship is defined as; To adore, to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect.
And worship to God is to take place not only at the church house and not only for a few hours a week.
We can pay honor to God at the job and in our homes. We can show reverence to God in all that we do.
Worship to God is to take place every day and in every aspect of our lives.
See more lessons on the Themes of Old Testament Books