Old Testament Reading: Leviticus 5 & 6
Psalms Reading: Psalm 49
New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 2
We all love to read a good book full of rules. This is what makes Leviticus the perfect bedtime story. Just kidding, unless if you actually enjoy reading pages of laws… but the majority of us don’t. It can be easy to skip over a book like Leviticus without gathering any insightful information because of how long, repetitive, and honestly boring it can be. But this begs the question, why did God have Moses write it? And why do we need to read it? At first it may seem like God set all the rules in place to restrict us and make life hard. But, through the law, He offered a way for His people to draw closer to Him. The laws found in Leviticus regarding the different offerings are there for the purpose of revealing WHO God is. God is holy. And in order to be in His presence… we must be holy too.
The book of Exodus closes with Moses not being able to enter the tent of meeting, because “the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” Moses was not able to be in the presence of God because there was no system in place that made humans clean. The continual theme throughout Leviticus is that humans are unclean. And unfortunately, there are so many tiny things that can make us unclean and keep us from God. This is why the book of Leviticus is so important to the Israelites. It offered a way for the Israelites to enter into the presence of their God. This is a major development of God’s plan of having a personal relationship with us.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 describe the occasions when sin offerings and guilt offerings were necessary. The difference between a sin offering and a guilt offering is that a sin offering is when the sin only affects yourself, and a guilt offering is when your sin affects others. Therefore, guilt offerings included a 20% reimbursement to the person who was wronged. God designed it this way so that relationships could be restored between the Israelites. The sin and guilt offerings demonstrated that the life is in the blood. Being able to see the blood being poured of the innocent sacrifice allowed the Israelites to understand the concept of a substitute for their sins.
Not only does Leviticus remind us of the holy attributes of God, but it ultimately shows the drastic differences between us and God by revealing all the sin that separates us. Even though we are no longer bound to the offerings and laws, the theme of Leviticus is just as important for us now as it was for the Israelites. God is holy and therefore we need to be holy in order to be in God’s presence.
-Makayla Railton
Reflection Questions
- What makes you unclean? What makes you clean? What do you do with your sin and guilt?
- What does it mean to you that God is holy? And that even in His holiness He still wants a relationship with you?
- What else can we learn about God and His attributes and His heart in our reading of His word today?
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