Leviticus Overview

Leviticus, like the two books before it, is traditionally attributed to Moses and is part of the Torah, which also includes Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While the Mosaic authorship is a long-standing tradition, modern scholarship suggests that the book is likely a compilation of oral traditions, historical events, and laws.

These were possibly edited and compiled over centuries, with some scholars suggesting that the final form may have been completed as late as the 5th Century BC.

The structure of the book is as follows:

Leviticus 1-7 - Ritual sacrifices

Leviticus 8-10 - Priests ordained

Leviticus 11-15 - Ritual purity

Leviticus 16-17 - Day of Atonement

Leviticus 18-20 - Moral purity

Leviticus 21-22 - Qualifications of priests

Leviticus 23-25 - Ritual feasts

Leviticus 26-27 - Call to covenant faithfulness

To understand the book of Leviticus we need to understand the word holy. It means something like to share in God’s nature, so that you can be suitable for God’s presence. Think of it like water and oil. The two are so different they cannot mix. In the same way, the less like God we are in our nature, the more difficult it is to be in his presence.

This is the issue that the Israelites face. In Exodus we read how the people rejected God and worship a golden idol, polluting and corrupting themselves. While God forgave them and restored his covenant relationship with them, they are still corrupted by their actions and Moses is then unable to enter God’s presence in the tabernacle.

Leviticus is all about how the Israelites are to clean themselves of their corruption and become holy, so they can reenter God’s presence.

In light of this, I want to propose a secondary structure to the book:

Leviticus 1-10 - Affirming relationship with God

Leviticus 11-17 - Getting clean

Leviticus 18-25 - How to live to stay clean

Leviticus 26-27 - The call to this new way of being

Leviticus 1-4

Leviticus is one of my favourite books. This is a bold claim, but I believe there is depth to these rituals and offerings, that we often miss in our modern society.

The book opens with a series of offerings, each serving a different purpose. But together they affirm one thing, relationship with God. The Israelites, are affirming, in all their flaws and failures, that they still want to be in relationship with God.

A very over simplified analogy might be bringing someone flowers and chocolate. Sometimes we do this to say sorry, other times it is to show that person they are valued, but either way it is to affirm the relationship you have with this person.

That is the intention with these offering from the Israelites. They are continuing to pursue relationship with God.

The first is the Burnt Offering. This is where a person would bring an animal; a bull, a sheep, a goat, or a dove/pigeon, and, after killing it, burn the whole body on the altar, leaving nothing left other. 

This offering had nothing to do with sin, but was the first step in someone coming before God. The person would bring their animal to recognise their need for God, and as the animal was burnt with fire, and as the smoke rose, that would be the symbol for them that God was there. 

Remember, God came to them in a pillar of fire and smoke. So this offering exists to show the willingness of someone coming before God and God’s presence there with them.

The second is the Grain Offering. This one is a little different. Some of the grain brought forward would be burnt on the altar, but then the rest of it would be for the priests to eat. The purpose of this offering was that it was like a shared meal. 

Before the person who has come do to do business with God begins, he would “share” a meal with God, the priests eating their bit of grain, and God enjoying his bit through the aroma of what was burnt on the altar.

We made a note of this theme of sharing a meal with God back in Exodus 24:9-11, when the elders of Israel ate with God as they agreed to the covenant. 

The third offering is the Peace Offering. This wasn’t offering for peace, but an offering to celebrate the peace they already had. It involves the same animals as the Burnt Offering, but only burns some of the body. 

The rest is used like the Grain Offering to be eaten by the priest, and this time the person who brought the offering. Again, the people share a meal with God. These two meals are to reinforce the relationship that the people had with God. We do a similar thing today in churches through communion. 

We take communion together, yes to remember what Jesus has done, but also to remind us of the relationship we now have with him and with one another. While only the priest got to enjoy the Grain offering, there are no limits to which bits we get to enjoy in communion. As Christians, we are all priests in God’s eyes.

With the fourth offering, we get the first offerings that are actually anything to do with sin. The first two sin offerings mentioned deal with the sin of the priests and the entire nation. In these cases, the blood of the sacrifice is taken into the tabernacle to re-purify it. Sin on these levels threatens the very purity of God’s dwelling place. 

The second two deal with the sins of individual leaders within the community, and then your every day person. In these cases the blood was left outside the tabernacle and just used to purify the altar. These offerings are all about cleaning the contamination of sin so that people are free to come near and be in God’s presence. I mention this in part here, as we'll pick this up in greater detail later in the book.

These offerings, however, are only for unintentional sins. There are no offerings for intentional decisions we make to sin. In those cases, Leviticus suggests that the person be cast out of the community or killed.

This is why Jesus’ death and resurrection is so much better than the sacrifices found here in Leviticus. He deals with all sin, intentional or unintentional.

Psalm 30

This psalm is attributed to King David and falls into the category of praise psalm, specifically a thanksgiving psalm. The psalmist, potentially David, is thanking and praising God for saving them from sickness, or from near death.

Psalm 30:1-3 - A testimony of praise

Psalm 30:4-5 - An encouragement for others to praise

Psalm 30:6-12 - The psalmists’ own experience

The psalm opens with its purpose, the psalmist praises God because the Lord has heard the cries, and healed them, saving them from death.

Turning to those around them, they encourage others to praise God. He speaks to the saints, the faithful ones, telling them to give thanks. The reason they can give thanks? While God’s anger may be present, and there may be weeping now, they will soon be replaced with God’s favour and joy.

The psalmist begins to share his own experience. He had made a commitment to stand with God, and then it had seemed like God had hidden his face. So the psalmist continues to hold on to God, crying out to him for help.

And he did. God turned the psalmist’s mourning into dancing, his clothes of grief into clothes of joy. Because of this the psalmist will never cease to praise God and share of his goodness.

The psalm is a reminder to us to share the good that God has done for us. We are to be honest and real about the difficult times, but then celebrate with others when God proves himself faithful.