Week 8—Leviticus 9-27

Welcome back! I’ll try to keep this short, because if you have finished Leviticus you’re probably exhausted. And if you haven’t, you will be. Since Leviticus consists of a long list of rules and regulations, there will be a bunch of statistics and word counts today. But don’t worry—there won’t be a test.

Last week we discovered that the reason Leviticus exists is to show the holiness of the Lord to the people of Israel and, by extension, us. We have the example of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 12. Strange fire on the offering? That’s not going to work. God demands holiness. All those rules on leprosy? God showed the Israelites how to be clean and avoid an unclean lifestyle (hmm, this sounds like something we are supposed to do anyway). Word count: clean appears 46 times in Leviticus; unclean 116 times.

One of the keys to understanding and actually enjoying Leviticus is being able to find God’s holiness. For example, Leviticus 11:44-45 reads, “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus, you shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Most of the rest of the key phrases for Leviticus are in these two verses. Word counts, just from the book of Leviticus:

I am the Lord: 22 times

I am the Lord your God: 22 times

Be holy: 9 times

Be holy, for I am holy: 5 times

The final key to Leviticus is in yet another name of God: I am the Lord who sanctifies you, or YHWH M’kaddesh. This name appears 7 times in Leviticus, and totally blew me away. It is not the blood, not the sacrifices, not the holy garments, but the Lord who sanctifies the people. Wow. When I realized this, when I found it looking for names of God, I was floored. It’s not that the sacrifices were for nothing, because bloodshed is necessary for forgiveness and atonement (word count: 51 times). But the sacrifices themselves could never be enough to make the people holy. God is the one who sanctifies.

How do we walk this out today, as New Testament believers? We are not bound to long lists of rules about what to eat and what to wear. But the book of James reminds us to keep ourselves “unstained by the world.” We are still to be holy, as God is holy. Yesterday, today, and forever.

Have a great week!

Laura