Lost Within or in Love with Leviticus
What book of the Bible are you currently spending your devotional time in? When that comes to an end, do you know what you will study next? When you made the previous decision to study what you’re currently reading, how did you choose which book of the Bible to pick?
For all of these questions, was Leviticus ever considered, even for a moment?
I love Leviticus, but many Christians haven’t had the opportunity to fall in love with the book because it has gotten bad billing. To be fair, at first glance it comes across as hard to work through because of all the details of the sacrificial system and the repeated regulations and feast days.
It seems easy to get lost within Leviticus, but I love Leviticus so much because it presents to us a beautiful picture of the redeeming love of God.
Could there be a more wonderful picture of the love of God than his willingness to make atonement for the sins of his own? Leviticus is in the Bible to entertain and answer probably some of the most important questions that we could ever ask as we seek to understand the biblical story:
• How can a perfectly holy God live with such unholy people?
• How can he do so without compromising his holiness?
• How can God accept unholy people?
Leviticus 4 uses a refrain three times: “The priest shall make atonement for him, . . . and he shall be forgiven” (4:26, 31, 35).
There are few more hopeful books in all of Scripture than Leviticus. Leviticus tells me that there is hope for me in my darkest, dumbest, stupidest, most rebellious moments. There is hope for me because God has made a way for sinners to know him, to be accepted by him, and to live in community with him.
But there is a second thing the book of Leviticus reveals. As we see priests, knee-deep in blood, garments covered in blood, making sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, we begin to realize the inadequacy of this system.
Yesterday’s sacrifices covered yesterday’s sins, but they will not cover tomorrow’s. The sacrificial system in Leviticus screams for a “once-and-for-all sacrifice.” Every sacrificial lamb cried out for the Lamb of God, Jesus.
In these words, “The priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven,” we find a promise of the coming of the Great High Priest, Jesus. He will be the final sacrifice, the complete payment, and the ultimate means of eternal forgiveness.
What better news could you ever want to hear?
A Prayer for Today: God, help me to know and better understand each day the beautiful picture of your redeeming love. Thank you for providing the ultimate sacrifice for me in the Lamb of God, your Son Jesus. You have provided atonement for me in the Great High Priest himself, and as a result, I am forgiven. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In your name I pray, amen.
God bless,
Paul Tripp
Leviticus points us to the ultimate demonstration of the love of God, the sending of his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for every sin we have committed or ever will commit. Now that’s a reason to do a deep dive through the book of Leviticus!
Or, if you want to spend 10 days reading through Leviticus, you can accomplish that if you follow along with my brand-new daily devotional, Everyday Gospel.
Everyday Gospel contains 365 fresh devotionals, with each entry tracking a Bible-in-a-year reading plan. In the case of Leviticus, you would read through this Old Testament book in ten days, with ten devotionals by me on the passages, as you journey from Genesis to Revelation.
You can get Everyday Gospel as a stand-alone book, or the Everyday Gospel Bible embeds all 365 of these entries directly into an ESV version. The Everyday Gospel Bible also includes introductions to each book of the Bible, plus 120 sidebar comments throughout and topic articles at the back. Today’s Wednesday’s Word pulled some of that from my summary of Leviticus.
Discussion Prompt for Children:
• Why do you think God’s people had to have an animal sacrificed to cover over their sin and be forgiven? Why don’t we do that today in order to have our sins forgiven?
• Why do you think one of the ways Jesus was referred to was “the Lamb of God”?
Reflection Questions
1. Have you ever read Leviticus before? What has been your perspective on the book and how have you interpreted it before? Why is it important to see that Leviticus is so much more than details of the sacrificial system and the repeated regulations and feast days?
2. Why is the sacrificial system in the Old Testament (specifically in Leviticus) ultimately a giant finger pointing to Jesus himself? How is there beauty in this system that you may initially miss at first glance?
3. Why is the book of Leviticus basically a book of hope? In what ways is the phrase, “The priest shall make atonement for him, … and he shall be forgiven” personally applicable to you right here, right now?
4. How does the gruesomeness of continual animal sacrifice reveal to you the suffering Jesus Christ went through for you? Why is Jesus the once-and-for-all sacrifice? If Jesus is the final sacrifice and complete payment for all sin, how is this changing you today? Take a moment and ask God to help you appreciate more deeply the sacrifice Christ made for you on the cross, and ask him to help open your eyes when reading Scripture in places like Leviticus so that you might see new beauty in passages you may have already read.