ILLUS: Several prominent literary figures were invited to an open forum where someone interviewed them and asked them questions. One question that came up was this: “If you were stranded on a desert isle, and you could only have one book, which book would you bring with you?”
- The first person said without hesitating, “The complete works of William Shakespeare”
-The next said, “I would bring the Bible with me”
- They turned to the last writer and said, “How about you? What book would you bring with you to a desert isle?”
He responded, “Thomas’ Guide to Practical Ship Building”
I know that some of you have probably been longing for months to hear me preach a sermon on Leviticus. Well tonight is your lucky night!
-Among Christians, I think Leviticus might be our LEAST studied book of the Bible. In fact, I’ve known many a person to say, “This year I’m going to read through the entire Bible”. They sail through most of Genesis. They get slowed down in Exodus, and by Leviticus, their Bible is back on the shelf collecting dust.
-We’re all really really happy that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, so we don’t have to memorize that big complicated system of when to offer burnt offerings, or guilt offerings, or grain offerings, or sin offerings. We don’t have to fool with laying our hands on scapegoats on the day of Atonement to release into the wilderness.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice that satisfied all of the law’s requirements. Together, we say, “WHEW!”, I’m glad I don’t have to get all that stuff right.
HOWEVER, I think we all believe that the Bible is God’s inspired word. Part of something being inspired means that it is supposed to have something that isn’t just helpful to one generation, but to all generations.
As much as we see Leviticus as kind of irrelevant, or at least UNPRACTICAL, it never ceases to shock me when we see how the Old Testament people thought about the Law.
PSALM 119 is the longest Psalm in the Bible, and the whole thing is about the Law.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
1 May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise;
42 then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.
43 Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws.
44 I will always obey your law, for ever and ever.
45 I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
46 I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame,
47 for I delight in your commands because I love them.
48 I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.
It’s hard to believe that all that is about Leviticus, isn’t it? King David sounded pretty excited about having the law.
I want to make a couple of general observations about why it’s good that we have Leviticus, and I want to follow it up with three specific principles we find in Leviticus that can truly help us as Christians.
1. Because we have Leviticus, we can be sure that God really cares about mankind.
-ILLUS: It’s amazing how liberating it is to actually know what someone is expecting out of you.
-There was a family with a teenage son from the South who moved up North. The Dad had a new job, so they moved. The son started at a local school, and since he was fairly athletic. He signed up to play football. The family tells his terrible story about how one day the football coach got on to the boy and said, “Do you understand me?” the boy responded, “Yes Sir.” The coach said, “What?” “Yes Sir?” “Are you some kind of smart alec? “No Sir?” “WHAT?” “NO SIR”. This boy spent most of the rest of the practice doing pushups. The boy’s dad finally had to come to the rescue, as the boy was very desperate and couldn’t’ figure out what the problem was.
As it turns out, in some northern parts of the country, to say “Yes sir” or “Yes maam” is insulting. It’s something you say when you’re scolding a child. If you say it to an adult, it’s offensive and disrespectful. Where most of us have grown up, it’s exactly the opposite. So here were this poor boy and his angry coach, and no matter how he tried, the boy could not figure out what this coach wanted.
That’s kind of how life was for Israel before God gave them his law. Sometimes God would show up and tell things to individuals like Abraham or Isaac, but they were often left guessing at what God would consider right or wrong, or pleasing or unpleasing.
When God gave us his Law, it is his way of saying, “I want you to fully understand how I want you to live and how I want you to treat each other.”
-The fact that we have books of the Law like Leviticus is proof to us of how well God understands us and cares about us. He went to great trouble to teach us how to live.
2. many people today like to get all huffy and puffy and say that “if you think God cares about HOW you worship him, you’re a blood-sucking legalist.”
-In the end of Exodus, God spends several chapters just describing EXACTLY how the tabernacle was to be built.
-In other words, the end of Exodus is about WHERE to worship God. The majority of the book of Leviticus is describing HOW to worship God.
-I think Leviticus is a significant testimony to us that we should worship God in ways that he desires for us to worship him.
If there were any one word that could describe the book of Leviticus, it is HOLINESS.
-Holiness is hard to define. We all would know that God is holy, and we are to be Holy as he is Holy. But again, what does that mean?
-The idea of holiness is an idea that invites comparison. It’s where you see two things and conclude “One of these is NOT like the other”.
-I don’t believe that Holiness is just another one of God’s attributes. “God is loving, he is merciful, he is just, he is holy”. I think instead, we should see holiness as the SUM TOTAL of God’s other characteristics. “God is loving, he is merciful he is just, he is perfect he is pure, and because God is all these things, we say he is HOLY.
-To be holy means to be different. For Christians to be HOLY, it means we are to be different than the world around us. Just as God is unlike us, we are to be unlike the world.
There are different ways we could try and categorize the book of Leviticus, but I’m going to talk about three specific things that Leviticus emphasizes.
1. In Leviticus, all the laws have to do with worshipping in the Tabernacle. There is a persistent theme that Israel must keep this Space Pure.
KEEP THE SPACE PURE.
(LOOK at Leviticus 10)
- 1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
" ’Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’ "
Aaron was the first high priest. His family had this special status. It was quite a shocker for God to put to death the priests who were Aaron’s own sons.
God speaks to Aaron, and is unapologetic for what he’s done, but then he gives further instructions:
8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, 9 "You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses."
Did you catch that? YOU MUST DISTINGUISH between the clean and the unclean.
-The Tabernacle had a special role for Israel. God’s presence traveled with them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The Tabernacle was God’s tent. It was like his dwelling place. God said, “For some place to represent me, to represent my presence, it MUST be treated with reverence and respect.”
-WE MUST KEEP THE SPACE PURE WHERE GOD IS REPRESENTED.
-I don’t think this passage can be applied to church buildings, but it needs to be applied to the church. Now WE are the light of the world. We are the city set on a hill for all to see. We need to be dedicated to keeping God’s church pure.
-We need to be pure in the doctrine that we teach. We need to do what God told Aaron to do…”Teach my word!” Just like that unauthorized fire, we don’t need to bring in new inventions that God didn’t teach us in the scriptures.
- Just as importantly, we need to keep the church morally pure. We need to hold each other to high standards. If God is to be represented by our congregation, we should expect Christian behavior from all of our members. And as a whole church body, we should let our light shine collectively. We need to keep the space pure.
2. We need to have a steady environment and routine of worship
- When the Israelites camped. They had 12 tribes that camped in a square shape, with 3 on each side. But in the middle of their camp, that’s where they put up the tabernacle. God remains at the center. And when they marched, the Ark of the Covenant went first, with everyone else behind it. Again, God remains first and foremost.
You can skim over Leviticus and see a lot about offerings and sacrifices. One of the things that really sticks out to me is the importance placed on routine.
(LOOK AT Leviticus 23)
Here’s all the official holidays:
1. Every Sabbath is a holiday. You are to rest and reflect on God.
2. There is the Passover on the 14th day of the first month.
3. There is the routine of bringing in firstfruits in a new land with a new crop
4. There is the feast of weeks that is 7 weeks after the Sabbath
5. On the first day of the 7th month, there is the feast of Trumpets
6. There’s the day of atonement
7. there’s the feast of tabernacles.
All these things that they are to remember, and to observe AT REGULAR INTERVALS.
It isn’t just the Israelites who needed steady environments and routines in their obedience to God.
Acts 2:42 says the early church, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
- We still need a steady environment and routine of worship as Christians.
- We need for God to be at the center of our lives, at the center of our busy schedules, and the most regular part of how we spend our time.
God didn’t set up routines for the Israelites because God needs a sacrifice, or because God needs the worship. It is for our own good that God wants us to attend the Christian assembly, to participate in our regular efforts to teach God’s word.
We learn from Leviticus the importance of having a holy routine, and a pure environment of worship.
3. In Leviticus, God teaches that we should keep people pure who inhabit the sacred space.
In the latter half of Leviticus, there are many rules about how a person is to be clean and stay clean. Some people refer to the last part of Leviticus as the Holiness Code.
_The first part of the book deals with what you do when you’re “at church’. The latter part of the book deals with what you do in all the rest of your life.
You can skim over the book, and find instructions about so many things.
- There are instructions about which foods are clean, and which foods are not to be eaten.
- There are regulations for what women are to do after they’ve given birth
- There are instructions to identify which kinds of skin diseases are clean or unclean, and what to do if you have a skin disease.
- There is a whole section of instructions about what to do if there is mildew in your house.
- There is a section dealing with unclean discharges. (all the stuff you take Pepto Bismol for…) This is what you should do, and how you should wash, and where you should be or not be.
Then there are sections dealing with sexual ethics, such as chapter 18.
- Not all of Leviticus is as “unpractical” as you might think. Look at Leviticus 19.
I want to hit some highlights:
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ’Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
3 " ’Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
9 " ’When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
I like God’s concern here for poor people. If God gives you a harvest, don’t just keep it all to yourself. If there are poor people who are willing to work, share what you have. This is what we see in Ruth. Boaz tells his guys, “Drop some extra grain so that she’ll get plenty of the scraps”
11 " ’Do not steal.
" ’Do not lie.
" ’Do not deceive one another.
18 " ’Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
(Where have you heard that one? That sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t it?)
32 " ’Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.
33 " ’When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. (Do you think God wants us to be reaching out to the immigrants around us…I think so!)
God has always cared a lot that his people have good character.
Just as we should keep God’s Church pure, we need to keep the individuals who make up the church pure.
We need to be clean and pure in what we do when we gather together, but we also need to be clean and pure in how we live our everyday lives.
1. Keep the space pure
2. Keep an environment and a routine of worship
3. Keep the inhabitants of the holy space pure.
Christ was the perfect sacrifice who fulfilled all the requirements of the law. Because we have sin, we need a sacrifice to restore us to a right relationship with God.
If there’s anyone here this evening who wants to accept Christ by putting him on in baptism, we’ll give you that opportunity.
