Wading through Leviticus

I have been attempting to read the Bible in one year during my devotional time in 2024. I haven’t done this for a while and it seemed like a good practice to pick up again. As with most people, however, the going starts to get rough once you get about halfway through Exodus. After the excitement of the narratives of Genesis and the rescue from Egypt, you then have multiple chapters of the requirements and building of the tabernacle. This only deepens once you move through Exodus and start into Leviticus.
 
I suspect this is where the wheels come off the wagon with most people’s attempts to read the Bible from cover to cover. It’s a hard slog working through pages and pages of regulations concerning the sacrificial system, behaviour as a community and what to do with various moulds and skin diseases. I am thoroughly convinced that all scripture is God-breathed and useful for our growth in godliness, but it can seem hard to draw near to God through passages like these!
 
But then again, perhaps that is the point. One of the themes of Leviticus, and the Old Testament Law in general, is the holiness of God. I was struck again by the fact that the priest is to wear a sacred emblem on their forehead when offering sacrifices and ministering in the tabernacle. That emblem was a golden plaque upon which was written “Holy to the Lord.”
 
The Lord our God is holy. God’s people couldn’t just waltz into his presence on a whim, whenever and however they wished. If they wanted God to go with them into the promised land (something that Moses argues for in Exodus) then they need to know what it means to live alongside a holy God. Unholiness and uncleanness abounds at every turn, and the people of Israel needed to have a clear system to deal with that uncleanness and stay right with the Lord.
 
God is holy and we are not. That is perhaps the overarching theme of Leviticus. And if it takes some wading through to fully understand that message, perhaps it is worth it. If for no other reason than it makes the wonder of the New Testament gospel all the more wonderful. Try reading Leviticus alongside the book of Hebrews, as the plan I am using does. Then reflect on words like these:
 
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
 
If you read Leviticus you cannot get any sense of the people approaching God with confidence. They needed to be careful about unholiness and uncleanness. But now, through Jesus, our great high priest, we can have confidence, absolute confidence, to come into the presence of our holy God. Not because we are so much better than the Old Testament people of Israel, but because we have been made holy by the blood of Jesus. If it helps me to understand this amazing truth, I might even be able to persevere with Leviticus a bit longer.
 
Photo by Ej Agumbay on Unsplash