Monday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 4:1 – 6:30 (March 5)
Leviticus 4 – The burnt offerings, grain offerings and fellowship offerings described in Leviticus 1-3 were to happen on regularly appointed occasions and times of worship. The sin offering, however, was to happen whenever necessary when unintentional sin was committed. Intentional sin, was punished according to the law codes (we’ll get to these in Leviticus 17-22) and/or reserved for the Day of Atonement (chapter 16).
Four classes of people involved in committing unintentional sin are listed: the anointed priest (v. 3-12), the whole Israelite community (v. 13-21), a leader, (v 22-26) and a member of the community (v 27-35). Why all this emphasis on unintentional sin? God wanted to help the people understand that all sin separated them from Him, whether realized or not. Once they became aware of the unintentional sin, it was to be dealt with.
In every case, the one offering the sacrifice was to lay his/her hands on the head of the sacrifice, indicating the substitutionary nature of the act. Blood was to be placed on the horns of the altar (the corners of the altar were upraised – called horns) as the symbol of death, the substitution of one life in the place of the other. The effect was atonement, that the sinner was forgiven and made right with God. Hebrews 9 and 10 makes a close connection between the practices of sin offerings and the work of Christ. I particularly like Hebrews 10:11-12, which indicates that the Old Covenant sacrifices were all contingent on Christ. It reads, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (that is, Jesus ) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” In other words, He was done. NO more sacrifice was necessary. As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.”
Why, in verses 28 and 32, is a member of the community to bring a female, when elsewhere it is a male (goat or bull). I couldn’t find a satisfactory explanation of that. Practically speaking, the sacrifice of only males all the time could decimate a flock. If few males were left to sire young the genetic variability of the flock would suffer, as is being experienced in domestic herds in the United States and Europe when one prize bull has been known to sire as many as 2 million offspring. The problems caused by lack of variability in the gene pool are only beginning to be realized.
Spiritually speaking, females may also have been offered to show that though a male animal was most often offered (as Christ, the male first born was offered up for us), females are also guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness.
Leviticus 5 – “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults,” say the words of Psalm 19:12. Sin and guilt offerings were all about making sure the guilt for unintentional sin was forgiven. Through Christ, our guilt is also completely removed, even when we’re not aware of our sin.
The guilt and sin offerings were very similar. The main difference is that guilt offerings were given when restitution was possible and therefore required (for damage done by neglilgence, etc.). The sacrifice required for a guilt offering was always a ram.
Leviticus 6 – Certain types of intentional sins like deception (stealing, lying, cheating) are also covered under the guilt offering (v. 1-7).
The following regulations about various offerings (6:8 – 7:21) may seem redundant, but these passages deal with sacrifice with a view to the role of the priests. The priests were the first “professional church workers.” The apostle Paul used this passage to show that workers in the church should be compensated for their work in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14. “Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
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Tuesday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 7:1 – 9:24 (March 6)
Leviticus 7 – With a guilt offering (v. 1-9), the fat, the kidneys and covering of the liver were to be removed first and burned before the priest could have his portion to eat. Beyond simple regulations, it may have been that this was done as a health consideration as well, since the kidneys and liver are organs that cleanse the body of toxins. Still today, the kosher diet is considered to be one of the most healthy in the world.
Yeast was a symbol of evil in the community of Israel, as has been discussed in these notes previously, so yeast was never to be included in any of the offerings burned on the altar. But in verse 13 yeast is to be included in the portion of the Fellowship offering eaten by the individual bringing it. Yeast was a luxury God wanted His people to enjoy, but it was to be excluded at certain times.
Blood was the essence of the life of the sacrificial victim. Since all sacrifices pointed forward to Christ, the blood was never to be eaten until Christ gave us a way to do it spiritually through the Lord’s Supper. Fat was also excluded, perhaps out of health concerns or as that special portion of the animal devoted exclusively to the Lord, or both.
Leviticus 8 – I already discussed some of the symbolism of the ordination of the priests in the notes on Exodus 29. Two additional thoughts come to mind here.
Moses was the one doing the consecrating. He was made worthy to be in that by God himself who consecrated him, appearing to him in the burning bush and later two separate stints of 40 days (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28) up on the mountain of God in God’s presence.
I was also struck by how much time was set aside for the consecration – that Aaron and his sons were to stay at the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days as they were consecrated. Serving God takes time. A relationship with Him takes time. I wonder how many more people would experience God’s presence more fully if they would simply be willing to take the time to listen to Him.
Leviticus 9 – Not only were the priests to be consecrated at the beginning of tabernacle worship, but the people were to be consecrated as well. When they had done all that, God appeared to them in fire, consuming the offerings. The people saw it, and “shouted for joy and fell facedown (v. 24).” God’s presence among His people is always going to have an effect. It’s interesting that before the offerings for sin had been made, the people reacted to God’s presence in fear (see Exodus 20:19). Now that the atoning sacrifices had been made to remove their sin, they reacted with joy.
Aaron and Moses blessed the people, and in Numbers 6:23-26 specific words of blessing were given to Aaron that we use in worship to this day.
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Wednesday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 10:1 – 11:47 (March 7)
Leviticus 10 – God’s judgment against Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu is terrible. What a shock it must have been for the Israelites who had just been so joyful to suddenly see two of their priests destroyed by fire. Later in the same chapter, Aaron’s remaining sons Eleazar and Ithimar did not eat the portion of the sin offering that they were supposed to eat. Why were they not also destroyed?
In all matters of God’s seemingly harsh judgments, we need to remember that God can see the heart. The time of worship when the fire of the Lord appeared to the people was a time to give glory to God. Nadab and Abihu took matters into their own hands, doing something that distracted from His glory, not an offense God ever takes lightly. (Leviticus 16:1 gives additional insight to what happened, saying that the two sons of Aaron died “when they approached the Lord.” Perhaps they had entered the Most Holy Place to offer the fire.) A similar incident prevented Moses from entering the Promised Land, when he hit a rock with his stick to get water to come out of it, rather than speaking to it as God had told him. Moses drew attention to himself by doing that, rather than to God. Nadab and Abihu’s motives also appear to be self serving, because when Aaron and his remaining sons went against the sacrificial regulations by not eating their portion of the sin offering, they were not found guilty. Their motives were sincere, perhaps abstaining from food as a way of mourning their lost family members. (Though outward mourning was not allowed on the part of the priests – v. 6 – God hadn’t forbidden ways of mourning that were unseen by others.
Leviticus 11 – Part of the uniqueness of the people of Israel was how they were to live. Within dietary regulations, we can find not only the marks of a nation that were to be unique among nations, but the marks of a God who wanted to safeguard the health of his people.
- V. 4-8 – Some of the unclean creatures listed may have caused health problems or been susceptible to disease. Some carry parasites or diseases can remain in food even after it has been cooked. Animals that do not chew the cud are also more likely to have toxins that they eat go into their meat rather than out the body.
- V. 9-12 – Shellfish (such as crab, shrimp, lobster, and oysters) are the garbage collectors of the ocean – bottom feeders that clean up toxins.
- V. 13-19 – Carrion birds and birds of prey are likely to ingest unclean or diseased animals and pass those undesirable things on to those who eat them.
- V. 20-23 – Insects that are excluded from the list of approved food are those that feed on dead things and dung.
- V. 29-38 – Creatures like rats and lizards were also unclean. Rats, of course, were disease carriers, and lizards are known to carry salmonella, among other things. The reason for destroying a clay pot into which one of these creatures had fallen or crawled is self evident – the porous surface of the clay would allow microbes a home.
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Thursday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 12:1 – 15:33 (March 8)
Leviticus 12 – Now that what goes in to the body for nutrition was covered, what comes out of the body or could come into contact with the body in some other way is addressed in chapters 12 – 15.
It is not clear in this chapter why there is a difference in the time of purification for boys and girls. One commentary I consulted quotes some ancient sources saying that is was believed then that the time of bleeding following the birth of a girl was longer than with a boy.
Leviticus 13 – Every era in world history seemed to struggle with its own terrible diseases. For the ancient world, leprosy – specifically white leprosy – was one. The “infectious skin disease” described in Exodus 13:1-46 is consistent with white leprosy. For example, infected areas turn hair white (v. 3); the infected person is no longer contagious when his whole body has turned white (v. 13), but if raw flesh appears he has become contagious again (v. 14). Long before concepts of bacteria and infection were understood, God prescribed quarantine to protect the uninfected members of the community. With so many people traveling in relatively close quarters, it was necessary for them to be carefully protected from communicable diseases.
In verse 47, the attention turns to mildew, but the reader of an English translation should know that the Hebrew word for the contaminant is exactly the same as that used for the skin disease; it’s only translated differently because it is found in cloth. It could very well be that the cause for the skin disease could be found in the cloth, and that controlling it meant both quarantining those who had the disease and doing away with contaminated cloth.
Leviticus 14 – Once a person was pronounced clean, they were brought back into fellowship with the nation of Israel. The symptoms of leprosy symbolized death, and being healed of it was, in a sense, a resurrection. A person went through a series of purification rites to be brought back into fellowship with the other people of the camp. Those were done to make absolutely sure they were completely free of disease. Secondly, the person was brought back into fellowship the God himself through sacrifices. This rite was a reminder that by far the worst consequence of having such a disease not to be able to participate in tabernacle worship and regular sacrifices for sin and guilt. To have a disease could result in death. To be cut off from God was even worse. The individual was assured that not only were they welcomed back into the camp, but welcomed back into fellowship with God.
Again, the Hebrew word for mildew in a house is the same as the one used for mildew in clothing and an infection on the skin. Whatever it was, it was a contaminant that could affect the health of the whole community, and God wanted to see to it that it would be removed for the physical good of the whole nation.
Leviticus 15 – The precise nature of bodily discharges chapter 15 talks about is not known, although it certainly seems as if they are connected to the genitals somehow, since whatever a person with a discharge sat on would be considered unclean. Such discharges may have been related to sexually transmitted diseases. After all, though the Israelites were God’s chosen people, they were certainly subject to temptation as anyone else was, and having come from an exposure to Egyptian culture for many generations, many aspects of the culture would have rubbed off on them, including sexual practices.
The remainder of the chapter also, I suspect, is to safeguard the people from any transmission of bacteria and disease that could result from all the situations described. It doesn’t mean that any of those things are, in and of themselves, unclean. For example, verse 18 doesn’t mean that sexual intercourse between a husband and wife is in any way wrong or dirty. After all, God created it as our means of procreation. Nothing God has created is unclean. Rather, my thought is that the practice of a short period of uncleanness was done simply to avoid the possible spread of disease.
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Friday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 16:1 – 17:16 (March 9)
Leviticus 16 – Because of the actions of Aaron’s sons, God saw it necessary to remind Aaron of the need to do things just as He had said, especially with regard to coming into His presence in the Most Holy Place. It was only to happen one day on the Day of Atonement, and only after making the proper sacrifices to atone for his own sins.
What was the significance of this most solemn practice on the day of atonement – two goats, one to be sacrificed as a sin offering and one to be sent away as the scapegoat. The note on verse 5 from the Concordia Self Study Bible is worth repeating; “No single offering could fully typify the atonement of Christ. The one goat was killed, its blood sprinkled in the Most Holy Place and its body burned outside the camp, symbolizing the payment of the price of Christ’s atonement. The other goat, sent away alive and bearing the sins of the nation, symbolized the removal of sin and its guilt.”
On the day of atonement, the people were to observe the usual Sabbath rest, but deny themselves (v. 29) as well, most likely meaning they were to fast.
Leviticus 17 – The theme in Leviticus now shifts to laws of conduct. Anyone who offered a sacrifice at another place than the tent of meeting was (a) guilty of bloodshed, and (b) to be cut off from the people. Just because God required animal sacrifices didn’t mean he wanted any of His creatures to die needlessly, so a person offering a needless or unauthorized sacrifice would be considered guilty.
On top of that, it was required to bring any sacrifice to the tabernacle. That is the place God had chosen for His earthly throne. Sacrifice in another place was idolatry (v. 7) or could lead to it. This background helps us understand the fundamental change Jesus brought when He said, “God is spirit, and His true worshippers worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (see John 4:23-24) Today, it’s not a big deal for us to worship God wherever we may be, but that was not always the case.
The eating of blood was strictly forbidden, the main reason being that a sacrifice was devoted to God. The life belonged to Him, not to anyone else. At some level, this law was also a reaction to pagan practices of drinking an animal’s blood to gain its strength or spirit. In Acts 15, the early church had to make a decision as to which law practices Gentile believers should try to follow, and which they shouldn’t. Not consuming blood was one of those laws that remained in force.
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Saturday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 18:1 – 19:37 (March 10)
Leviticus 18 – Sexual relations among the Israelites are spelled out here. This is the first place in the Bible that incest is prohibited. I discussed this in the notes on Genesis 4. In the beginning, incest was necessary. Adam and Eve’s children had to marry their siblings, and Noah’s family line had to marry close relatives for the human race to continue. Over the course of time, however, because of the decay of sin, genetic mistakes became more prevalent, and the chances of a close relative having the same genetic mistakes were greater. At this point, marrying a first cousin is not forbidden, as it is in our country. We have suffered from 3500 more years of genetic decay. Incest laws have necessarily broadened as a result. Interesting, Abraham’s marriage to his half-sister Sarah would have been unlawful in Leviticus. Abraham, however, came 700 years before this time. The Israelites had also become more of an isolated people. Over the course of time, isolation causes genetic information loss in the part of people or animals, making laws against incest even more important for the general health of the nation.
Verse 20 forbids sexual relations with a married woman, which is also covered in the 10 commandments (Exodus 20:14).
Verse 22 forbids homosexual relationships. I’ll comment on homosexuality more fully in the notes for Leviticus 20, where punishment is also discussed. Interestingly, relations between women is not mentioned, perhaps because there is no means of penetration. Paul, however, makes it clear that lesbianism is not in God’s plan, calling such relationships “unnatural” (Romans 1:26).
Leviticus 19 – The laws in this chapter are mostly characterized by care and concern for a person’s fellowman. A few interesting laws jumped out at me.
v. 14 “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind…” God didn’t want anyone to be taken advantage of because of a malady.
v. 17 “Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.” In other words, if someone has done something to offend you, let them know about it rather than harboring a grudge. Then there will be a chance for reconciliation, and at least it has gotten out in the open rather than fostering simmering hatred.
v. 23 and following. God knew that fruit trees would develop faster of simply allowed to grow for the first few years. The first useable harvest was to be given entirely to the Lord, a way of showing trust in Him for future provision.
v. 28 “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.” Some people use this passage to say that tattoos are morally wrong. It’s hard to make a case for that. Other laws that no longer apply to our situation in life are not upheld today. Why that one? If it comes down to loving God and loving neighbor in some way, the law can still have applicability today. If not, then we can’t pick this one passage out of the Bible and say that it still applies today when so many others don’t.
One final comment. Jesus said that the law was summed up in love of God and love of neighbor. We see that clearly here. Loving neighbor as self is mentioned twice in the chapter (v. 18, v. 34). Loving, honoring and respecting God is implied in the many times it says, “I am the Lord.” Even if the laws God gave didn’t have practical application for the good of those who receive them, we should still follow them simply because God is great and worthy of our honor and obedience. How much more since they do give practical benefits to those who follow them. They show His love for us in that way.
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