Leviticus - Part 2: The Priesthood
Leviticus 8
Pastor Scott Skones
Sunday, January 19, 2025
We are continuing today in our sermon series in Leviticus. Someone mentioned to me last week that this is probably not a sermon series that will draw in animal rights activists or those who are squeamish when it comes to descriptions of blood. These first chapters in Leviticus contain detailed descriptions of animal sacrifice. And you see just how detailed God’s commands are.
If you missed last week’s introduction to Leviticus, I’d encourage you to go back and watch it on YouTube or you have the option to watch or listen in the church center mobile app. The first part of the sermon made an argument or a defense for why we are spending 10 weeks in Leviticus. And then the second part of the sermon was focused on the first of the offerings that we see as the book begins.
I mentioned that the first major portion of Leviticus introduces us to these five types of offerings:
Burnt offering
Grain offering
Peace offering
Sin offering
Reparation offering
I want to talk just briefly this morning as we begin about those five offerings. Now, to be fair, it’s a bit more complicated than that, because, as we saw last week, each of them could be subdivided. But I think these 5 categories give us a pretty good understanding of this system of Worship that God put in place for his people.
Remember, one of the prevailing questions that Leviticus deals with is “How do sinners live in relationship with a Holy God?”
And so let’s look briefly at each of these 5 offerings:
Burnt Offering - A voluntary offering of cattle, sheep, goats, or birds that covered the sins of the people as they sought to worship the Lord. The entire offering was burned on the altar.
Grain Offering - An offering of flour or bread through which the people offered to the Lord the first and best of their harvest. This was also the means through which God provided food for the priests. The people would bring regular grain offerings to ensure that the priests were provided for.
Peace Offering - Sometimes called a fellowship offering. This offering was similar to the Burnt Offering, with the exception that most of the meat would be shared between the family that brought the offering, their invited guests, and the priests. This was an offering of celebration for holy days and special occasions. God details the parts that are to be burned on the altar in worship, the parts that are to be consumed by the family and guests, and the parts that are reserved for the priests. Any excess had to be burned. God didn’t allow leftovers.
Sin Offering - This is a category of offerings focused on unintentional sins. The instructions are different depending on who sinned.
Reparation Offering - Sometimes called a guilt offering. This offering covered a wide variety of sins, which might best be divided into two categories: 1) sinning against or defiling God’s holy rituals and regulations, and 2) sinning against one’s neighbor. This offering consists not only of an offering to the Lord but also often an act of restitution – to make things right.
The details of these 5 types of offerings take up chapters 1-7 of the book of Leviticus.
Today, we are moving forward into the next major theme that we see in Leviticus, and that’s details regarding the priesthood. We find the details of the priesthood in Leviticus chapter 8.
If you’re familiar with Israel’s history – there are three major offices that were responsible for both spiritual and civic life. Three offices played a key role in both Israel’s strength, and, at times, its failures. Those offices are that of prophet, priest, and king.
If you took up my invitation to read through Leviticus, you might have arrived at chapter 8 and thought there wasn’t much to it. But the events of this chapter make up a very significant day in the Old Testament – the ordination of the first priests of Israel.
I invite you to stand as you’re comfortable as I read Leviticus chapter 8.
Leviticus 8
The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast, 3 and gather the entire assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting.” 4 Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
5 Moses said to the assembly, “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.” 6 Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. 7 He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also fastened the ephod with a decorative waistband, which he tied around him. 8 He placed the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece. 9 Then he placed the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the sacred emblem, on the front of it, as the Lord commanded Moses.
10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them. 11 He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them. 12 He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him. 13 Then he brought Aaron’s sons forward, put tunics on them, tied sashes around them and fastened caps on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.
14 He then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. 15 Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it. 16 Moses also took all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys and their fat, and burned it on the altar. 17 But the bull with its hide and its flesh and its intestines he burned up outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.
18 He then presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. 19 Then Moses slaughtered the ram and splashed the blood against the sides of the altar. 20 He cut the ram into pieces and burned the head, the pieces and the fat. 21 He washed the internal organs and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
22 He then presented the other ram, the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. 23 Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 24 Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splashed blood against the sides of the altar. 25 After that, he took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys and their fat and the right thigh. 26 And from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the Lord, he took one thick loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf, and he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh. 27 He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they waved them before the Lord as a wave offering. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord. 29 Moses also took the breast, which was his share of the ordination ram, and waved it before the Lord as a wave offering, as the Lord commanded Moses.
30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments.
31 Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the meat at the entrance to the tent of meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded: ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’ 32 Then burn up the rest of the meat and the bread. 33 Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. 34 What has been done today was commanded by the Lord to make atonement for you. 35 You must stay at the entrance to the tent of meeting day and night for seven days and do what the Lord requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded.”
36 So Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded through Moses.
God, may you accomplish in us all that you desire as we reflect on your Holy Word. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The emphasis of Leviticus changes when we get to chapter 8. The details and regulations for sacrifices are in place, and now the focus is on the Priesthood.
There’s a lot of evidence that early on – in Genesis and Exodus – that the father of the family served as a type of priest – acting in faith on behalf of his family, offering sacrifices to cover the sins of his family.
And then we get to the end of Exodus, and something interesting happens. In Exodus 40:34, we read: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
So now, the one who had acted as the mediator between God and mankind previously – the one who went up the mountain and heard from the Lord, is unable to enter the tent of meeting.
And God is up to something – the very next chapter in Scripture introduces offerings and sacrifices which begin to set the stage for sinners entering the presence of God.
Now, none of these rituals themselves are new. We saw sacrifice taking place as far back as the garden when God took the skins of animals and used them to cover up the shame of our first parents. And of course, the issue that divided Cain and Abel was all about offerings brought to the Lord. So none of these individual elements are new. What’s new in Leviticus is bringing it all together into a formal, divine service, commanded by the Lord.
Just like he does today, each Lord’s day, God was inviting his people to come and worship him, and putting all of the details into place for that to happen.
But offerings and sacrifices made it necessary that there would be priests to carry out the work on behalf of the people.
And that brings us to what is sort of the one main theme of chapter 8: God instructs Moses to ordain Aaron and his sons to be mediators between God and his people.
God is setting apart and authorizing a group of people to serve as mediators between him and his people. And our text today covers all of the details of the ordination of those servants.
The word ordination that shows up in our text for today is a word that means “to fill the hands.” In the sense in which it’s used here, it means entrusted with responsibility. Authorized into an office and entrusted with the responsibilities of that office.
And the office of which we are speaking, of course, is the office of Priest.
And so today as we reflect on this account from Leviticus 8, I want to highlight several details of this ordination ceremony and process that are helpful for us, and, ultimately, point us to Jesus.
The Calling of the Priests
V. 1 - The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast, 3 and gather the entire assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting.”
God is the one who initiates this calling and ordination of the priests who serve.
This was true of God calling Abraham to follow him, calling Moses to lead his people out of Egypt – and, later, it would be true of God calling David – and ultimately the disciples and apostles of the New Testament.
And this remains true today. I serve on the Theological Council of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren – and we are tasked with screening and recommending candidates for ordination. And a considerable part of our work is not only examining competency but also call.
When you needed a pastor – you didn’t HIRE me, you voted to issue me a letter of CALL. And ultimately God is the one who does the calling. Our job is to prayerfully seek God’s guidance regarding that call.
One doesn’t call themself. You are called by God. In our case, pastors are called by God through the church. There are no independent pastors. You become a pastor by virtue of a call, and you remain a pastor by virtue of a call. If you as a congregation were to decide to end my service here at Living Word and I didn’t then go on to receive and accept another call, I would no longer be a pastor. Why? Because a pastor isn’t a pastor because he feels like a pastor. A pastor is a pastor because God has called him through the local church.
And this is true of Aaron and these priests. God CALLED them. They are serving in this office because God called them to it.
The next point that I want to highlight is:
The Clothing of the Priests
We will be looking here at verses 6-9 primarily, as God, in great detail, tells the people what the priest must wear.
As our culture has decreased in formality, it has become less and less common to see uniforms or traditional garments worn in ANY profession, and that includes clergy.
I think it’s important to note WHY uniforms were common in many professions and careers. The uniform is intended to signify and indicate the OFFICE that the person holds. It draws attention to the office of the person, as opposed to the person themselves.
When a police officer or soldier puts on a uniform, it represents something bigger than themselves. It means that they are acting in their official capacity. In the capacity of the OFFICE to which they have been authorized. The individual takes a back seat to the office.
And so it’s quite likely that’s one reason that God commanded such an ornate uniform for the priests. But, there’s more to it as well.
We get some of the information on the garments here in Leviticus 8, but more information is found earlier as well in Exodus 28 and Exodus 39, as well as some other passages.
I have a picture of what this looked like.
The Priest’s Garments
The first part of the priestly uniform was a white tunic. There was an embroidered sash and a turban. The high priest would also wear a blue robe, a breastpiece containing some stones, and a gold plate, often called a diadem, attached to the turban.
And on that diadem, worn on the head, were the words “Yahweh’s Holiness.”
On the breast piece, there were 12 stones representing all of the tribes of Israel.
And so this uniform ensured that as the High Priest went about his work, the work of offering sacrifices for sin – he bore the Holiness of God on his head and the people of God on his heart.
I want you to remember that we’ve titled this series, The Gospel According to Leviticus. Here’s one of the hundreds of Gospel gems in the book.
Right before Aaron and his sons were dressed in these garments, verse 6 says that Moses washed them with water. And then he clothes them in these divine garments crowned by the holiness of God.
And then look forward in the story – through the Cross – to Galatians 3:27. The Apostle Paul declares “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Do you see the same exact thing happening? Washing in holy baptism, and being clothed in the Holiness and Righteousness of Jesus.
Leviticus 8 PREFIGURES in the priests that which would come to all believers because of Jesus’ perfect life and death in our place.
In baptism, Paul says, we are washed and clothed in the holiness of God.
The third detail that we will look at in this ordination ritual is:
The Anointing of the Priests
V. 12 - “He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.”
Back in Exodus chapter 30, instructions were given for the oil that would be used to anoint things and people as being set apart for the Lord. The oil was sort of a physical symbol of the Holy Spirit and of God’s presence. Whatever the oil touched was consecrated, or set apart, for the Lord.
Oil was applied to the tent of meeting, to the objects used for worship – setting them apart, making them ready for use in this new formal system of worship that God was implementing.
But, again, we find beautiful Gospel hope buried in this text. Because this anointing of Aaron with oil isn’t just a random historical detail – it’s an arrow. Pointing us forward. Forward to a person. Think, for a moment, about the title of our Savior. Scripture refers to him as Christ. What does Christ mean? Christ means “anointed one.” This anointing of Aaron is pointing forward to a true and better Aaron – a true and better anointed priest. More on that in a minute.
The next detail from this ordination service for us to consider is:
The Blood Applied to the Priests
V. 23 - “Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.”
The priest and the work that he is called to carry out are united through the blood of the sacrifice. The blood on the ear lobe, the thumb, and the big toe are obviously symbolic.
In one sense they represent the whole person – head, hands, feet. But in a deeper sense, they are a confession that EVERYTHING that the priest does is done through the sacrifice, the death, the shed blood of a substitute.
When the priest hears from the Lord, it’s through the blood of the sacrifice. When the priest offers up offerings on behalf of the people, it’s through the blood of the sacrifice. Wherever the priest goes, he goes through the blood of the sacrifice.
The priest was the one who was able to declare the forgiveness of sins over the people of Israel who brought their offerings by faith – that proclamation was through the blood of the sacrifice. Every aspect of the priest’s work was dependent upon that sacrifice, slain in the place of the sinner. And, yet again, we see Jesus. Plain as day. The lamb of God, slain for the sin of the world. The true and better sacrifice.
Well there’s one final detail of this ordination service that I want to make note of today, and that’s:
The 7-Day Purification of the Priests
V. 33 - Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days.
When we read this alongside Exodus, we realize that there would be a full 7 days' worth of sacrifices offered on behalf of these priests – a full 7 days' worth of reminders that they were not qualified in and of themselves. That they weren’t holy in and of themselves. That they were sinners in need of forgiveness.
They had a daily need for the forgiveness of sins. And the imagery here is beautiful. The expectation was that they would live their lives in daily contrition and sorrow over their sin, trusting in the mercy of God to them because of the sacrifice offered in their place.
In other words, God builds into this ordination service of the priests of Israel, the model of Daily Repentance and Faith. 7 days of recognizing their sin, and trusting in the sacrifice who was offered up for their sin. And so, we too, live in daily repentance and faith. Daily awareness of our sin. Of who we are apart from God’s intervention in our lives. And daily trusting and believing that Jesus came for sinners like you and me.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 says - “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”
When Jesus was on the cross, Mark records for us that when Jesus breathed his last, The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
That great barrier between God and man was destroyed. Hebrews goes into greater detail here.
Hebrews 10:19-22 - Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Here’s what this means: Because of the cross, we no longer need a priest to offer sacrifices for us over and over again. We have one great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did that once and for all.
And instead, God has given us pastors and Elders to teach and correct and shepherd and care and oversee.
Think of it this way: You don’t need me in order to have your sins forgiven. You don’t need a pastor to access the forgiveness of sins – that is by faith alone. But God has given pastors and elders as a gift of his grace to point you to the true high priest, over and over. God has given you the gift of pastors and elders to remind you of the substitute who died so that you might live. To proclaim over you the forgiveness of sins for all who believe. To declare to you each Sunday that Jesus died for you.
Revelation 1:5-6 - To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever!
Did you hear that? Jesus made us priests to serve God. In your baptism, you were washed clean, forgiven, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And scripture says that, in a sense, we are all priests. We are all entrusted with the responsibility of pointing others to the true once-for-all sacrifice for sin.
I don’t know how you have it with the Lord today. If you want to talk more about your relationship with the great high priest, the one who offered himself in your place, reach out this week. I’d love to talk more.
And if you are trusting in Jesus – rest today in confidence, knowing that Jesus has done it all. And ask him what it looks like for you to be part of this kingdom of priests, pointing others to forgiveness and life in Jesus. Jesus is the true and better sacrifice and the true and better high priest.
Why Preach Through Leviticus?
The Gospel According to Leviticus - A sermon series at Living Word Lutheran Brethren Fellowship in Dickinson, ND.
At Living Word, we are on a 10-week journey in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. Some of you, understandably, have asked “Why?” Here are 6 reasons that we should preach through Leviticus.
1 - Leviticus structures the religious system of Israel, which is the context in which Jesus came.
This book sets up the religious system – the interaction between God and humans. And it’s into this religious system that God sent us the savior. And so if we want to understand the gospels and Jesus’ life, and what he accomplished, Leviticus really helps us.
2 - Leviticus deals with the holiness of God and how that impacts sinners.
Perhaps the major question that the scriptures set out to answer is how sinners can be reconciled with a Holy God. And Leviticus is focused almost entirely on that question. It sets up our understanding of purity, holiness, and sin.
Leviticus is predicated upon the idea that we are not right with God on our own. That God is holy, and we are not.
3 - Leviticus establishes the need for sin to be atoned for and is the theological and historical foundation for Christ’s atoning work.
You will see dozens and dozens of times throughout this book the idea of being impure or defiled – and then the sacrifice and offerings necessary to cover up that sin and make things right. And, of course, this is what Jesus came to do. To deal with sin. To be a sacrifice for sin. Leviticus prescribes that the answer for sin is a blood sacrifice to atone for the sin. That’s a really big deal. That’s the basis of Christian theology.
4 - Leviticus captures the direct speeches of God to his people through the mediator Moses.
I’ve heard it said, and I didn’t count words, but I think it’s accurate that Leviticus gives us more direct quotes from the mouth of God than any other book of the Bible. God speaks to Moses, and Moses records those speeches.
5 - Leviticus is quoted and alluded to by the New Testament, and Jesus himself, very often.
For example, Leviticus 19 contains one Old Testament passage that Jesus quoted more than just about anything else – the command “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus didn’t pull that out of thin air during his earthly ministry. He was quoting Leviticus. And there are many many other places that the New Testament quotes Leviticus – and countless other places where the New Testament utilizes the imagery of Leviticus.
6 - Leviticus is full of “arrows” pointing the reader forward to Jesus.
This might be the point that becomes most clear to you during our time in the book. Every page of this book contains arrow after arrow pointing us forward to Jesus. Leviticus is all about Jesus.
When we read about atonement, we see Jesus. When the animal is killed in place of the sinner, Jesus. When the impure is cleansed, Jesus. Over and over again, you will see arrows pointing you forward to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you will give yourself to this study of Leviticus – I think you’ll come to deeply appreciate what God reveals to us through this book. I won’t promise that you’ll say that Leviticus is your FAVORITE book – but I think I can promise that it will change your understanding and deepen your appreciation of these 27 chapters at the heart of the Pentateuch.
For more sermons from Living Word Lutheran Brethren Fellowship, visit https://www.livingwf.org/watch
If you’re in the Dickinson, North Dakota area, please join us on Sunday Mornings at 10:30 a.m.
Leviticus - Part 1: Acceptable to the Lord
Pastor Scott Skones
If you were to rate your favorite books of the Bible, I’m guessing many of you would pick one of the Gospels. Or, perhaps, the Psalms. Some might pick a letter like Philippians, while others might love the Proverbs or the beautiful theology of Romans.
One thing that I’m confident of though, is that if I polled everyone in this room about what your FAVORITE book of the Bible is, nobody in here would say Leviticus.
In fact, Leviticus has single-handedly stalled out more “Read through the Bible” plans than any other book in scripture. Some of you have experienced that. You’re reading every day, things are going well. You get through the narratives of Genesis and Exodus, and you’re still captivated by the story of God’s people.
And then you get to Leviticus. You make it through a few chapters, learning about different types of offerings. But then come the long, detailed descriptions of the priests, and the clean and unclean foods, and the skin diseases and the bodily discharges, and the Jewish festivals and it’s just more than you can bear.
And I can sympathize with that experience. I, too, in the past have struggled with the details, command after command, that the book contains.
But I would argue that the problem is not actually with Leviticus – it’s that none of us have been taught how to read Leviticus. None of us have been given an understanding of what God is doing in Leviticus, that opens it up for us and transforms it from boring to beautiful.
Now, some of you may remember that in the fall of 2019, I preached through the book of Exodus. And then in the fall of 2022, I went backward and preached through Genesis. And here we are in 2025 and I’ve decided to continue this time in the Pentateuch by preaching Leviticus.
Many times in the weeks leading up to a new sermon series I’ll announce it to whet your appetite. But, with Leviticus, I wanted you to actually show up this morning, so it’s a bit of a surprise attack.
Just a brief note about how we are approaching this series: This book contains 27 chapters, and we are going to handle those 27 chapters in about 10 sermons. Over these weeks we will grow in our understanding of what God is saying and doing in this book, and what it means for us. You won’t end the series with detailed notes on every verse and chapter, but, rather, with the tools and foundational knowledge necessary to understand the book in its fullness.
You might be wondering where the name “Leviticus” comes from. If you look at the first four letters, you see the word “Levi.” And so “Leviticus” means “pertaining to the Levites.” The Levites, of course, were Israel’s priests. Those who were called and responsible for the affairs of the Tabernacle and eventually the temple. And so we might think of this title as saying that Leviticus is instructions for the priests of Israel.
Leviticus starts where Exodus ends.
If you were to look back at the end of Exodus – Exodus chapter 40, we read this:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the Tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
Exodus ends with the Glory of the Lord filling the Tabernacle, that portable temple. God had chosen to dwell among his people.
And so Leviticus is going to lay out for us how God’s people relate with him. How they worship him. How they enter into relationship with him.
That recognition alone is really helpful. Leviticus is the story, given to us by Moses, of How God invites his people to meet him. More on that in a moment.
Well, today we are going to look at chapter 1 of Leviticus, but before we do that, I want to answer what might be the prevailing question before us today. And that question is “Why in the world are we spending 10 weeks in Leviticus?”
And that’s a fair question. I would bet that the majority of you have never been part of a church that has preached through this book. I haven’t. And so I want to share with you Six reasons that Leviticus is worth our time and attention. I’m not going to spend a lot of time unpacking these 6 reasons, as we will do that over the course of our time in this book. But here are 6 reasons that we should preach through Leviticus.
1 - Leviticus structures the religious system of Israel, which is the context in which Jesus came.
So this book sets up the religious system – the interaction between God and humans. And it’s into this religious system that God sent us the savior. And so if we want to understand the gospels and Jesus’ life, and what he accomplished, Leviticus really helps us.
2 - Leviticus deals with the holiness of God and how that impacts sinners.
Perhaps the major question that the scriptures set out to answer is how sinners can be reconciled with a Holy God. And Leviticus is focused almost entirely on that question. It sets up our understanding of purity, holiness, and sin.
Leviticus is predicated upon the idea that we are not right with God on our own. That God is holy, and we are not.
3 - Leviticus establishes the need for sin to be atoned for and is the theological and historical foundation for Christ’s atoning work.
You will see dozens and dozens of times throughout this book the idea of being impure or defiled – and then the sacrifice and offerings necessary to cover up that sin and make things right. And, of course, this is what Jesus came to do. To deal with sin. To be a sacrifice for sin. Leviticus prescribes that the answer for sin is a blood sacrifice to atone for the sin. That’s a really big deal. That’s the basis of Christian theology.
4 - Leviticus captures the direct speeches of God to his people through the mediator Moses.
I’ve heard it said, and I didn’t count words, but I think it’s accurate that Leviticus gives us more direct quotes from the mouth of God than any other book of the Bible. God speaks to Moses, and Moses records those speeches.
5 - Leviticus is quoted and alluded to by the New Testament, and Jesus himself, very often.
For example, Leviticus 19 contains one Old Testament passage that Jesus quoted more than just about anything else – the command “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus didn’t pull that out of thin air during his earthly ministry. He was quoting Leviticus. And there are many many other places that the New Testament quotes Leviticus – and countless other places where the New Testament utilizes the imagery of Leviticus.
6 - Leviticus is full of “arrows” pointing the reader forward to Jesus.
This might be the point that becomes most clear to you during our time in the book. Every page of this book contains arrow after arrow pointing us forward to Jesus. Leviticus is all about Jesus.
When we read about atonement, we see Jesus. When the animal is killed in place of the sinner, Jesus. When the impure is cleansed, Jesus. Over and over again, you will see arrows pointing you forward to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you will give yourself to this study of Leviticus – I think you’ll come to deeply appreciate what God reveals to us through this book. I won’t promise that you’ll say that Leviticus is your FAVORITE book – but I think I can promise that it will change your understanding and deepen your appreciation of these 27 chapters at the heart of the Pentateuch.
Well with these 6 reasons for us to read and study our way through Leviticus, let’s turn our attention to chapter 1. Chapter 1 is going to introduce us to offerings and sacrifices.
I’m going to read all of Chapter 1 to get our introduction to this book.
Leviticus 1
The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
3 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. 5 You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 6 You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 9 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
10 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, you are to offer a male without defect. 11 You are to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall splash its blood against the sides of the altar. 12 You are to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 13 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of them and burn them on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
14 “‘If the offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, you are to offer a dove or a young pigeon. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He is to remove the crop and the feathers and throw them down east of the altar where the ashes are. 17 He shall tear it open by the wings, not dividing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is burning on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
God, this is your word – and it is true – and it is good – and it is our authority. Lord, we pray that this time in Leviticus would open it up to us. May your holy spirit give us ears to hear and hearts to believe all that you are saying. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you remember back in April, many parts of the United States got to experience a Total Solar Eclipse. I remember that I was driving to Minnesota that day for meetings, and I stopped in Jamestown at about the time that it was supposed to reach totality – at least as much totality as what we would be able to see here in our area. And so I got out of the car and looked up and all I could see was the bottom side of clouds – dense clouds blocking the experience.
But, many got to experience the eclipse in all of its glory.
But we all know one thing about an eclipse – and that’s the fact that you have to be careful when you’re observing an eclipse because you can cause damage to your vision if you look directly at the sun.
I think that God designed his world in that way as an illustration. Just as humans can’t look directly at the sun without some mediation, without some protection – the same is true with our Holy God.
After Adam and Eve sinned against God, we have been fundamentally incompatible with the presence of God. Human beings are sinful and impure and, just like those observers of the solar eclipse, we couldn’t bear looking directly at God.
And so what we see in scripture is that God comes through means and through mediators. God doesn’t abandon his people. He continues meeting with and speaking to his people, but through mediation, through means, through a veil.
And that’s what we find in Exodus and Leviticus. God wants to dwell among his people. God loves his people, despite their rebellion against him. And so he moves in – he dwells among them in the tabernacle. And he creates a system by which his people interact with him. And part of that is through offerings.
The first major portion of Leviticus introduces us to these five types of offerings:
Burnt offering
Grain offering
Peace offering
Sin offering
Reparation offering
Chapter 1 of Leviticus introduces to us the subject of worship through the first: burnt offerings. Remember that God, in his mercy, made the decision to dwell among the people. And his dwelling place at this stage of the journey is the tabernacle, which is a fancy word for tent or dwelling place.
And so the Tabernacle was a portable temple. Exodus contains all of the instructions for the Tabernacle, but suffice it to say that this was the place that contained all of the elements of Hebrew worship. If you’re interested in some related reading, Exodus 25 would be a good place to start.
Remember before the building of the Tabernacle, God met with Moses on the mountain. And God, in an undeserved act of grace and love, comes down from the mountain and makes his dwelling among the people.
And what we have for today is an introduction to the various ways that God instructs the Hebrew people to worship him.
This really is an introduction sermon as we wade into the waters of Leviticus, so I want to point out three major ideas that are important for us to take notice of as we begin in this book.
First, God invites sinners to come to him.
V. 1 - The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord…
God, through his servant Moses, invites his sinful people to come to him. God welcoming sinners is the most significant act of love in human history. God is perfectly holy and has no obligation toward us, but in his mercy invites us to come to him.
God calls his people to worship. One thing that is interesting about this burnt offering that we see in Chapter 1 is that it is a voluntary offering. In Exodus 25 as the stage is being set for this, It says, “You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.”
And so this isn’t a demand from God, but an invitation. God invites sinners to come to him. He puts in place all of the steps necessary for his people to worship him.
This is really helpful for us because this remains true today. God invites sinners to come to him. God welcomes sinners to worship him.
We see this repetition in our text several times, starting in verse 9 – that the offering brought, when it is brought according to God’s instructions, is “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”
In other words, God is pleased with our worship when we worship according to his invitation and regulation.
Our conversations about worship often revolve around our preferences, or desires, our comfort, our style, and our familiarity. But in true Biblical worship, your preferences are insignificant. My preferences are insignificant. God is the one who calls us into worship, and God’s preferences are the only thing that ultimately matter.
The question when it comes to worship is not “Do I like the style or the vibe or the music?” but “Is this pleasing to the Lord?”
Our primary driving force in the gathered worship of God’s people can never be a desire to be “cutting edge” or “relevant” or “modern.” Usually, those words are all just other ways of trying to pass entertainment for worship.
The primary question before us is “Is this a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”
You’ll notice as we work through Leviticus that God is very orderly, very specific, and very concerned about details. And so our worship must always be intentional. We are careful not to be sloppy. I’ve been to churches before that felt like literally nobody thought through the service ahead of time. Someone gets up and it’s obvious they haven’t thought about announcements. The scripture readers have obviously not looked at the text ahead of time. There are elements of the service that aren’t in any way about worshipping the Lord.
And, at the same time, we recognize that this is not entertainment. This is not a production. I’ve been in those churches as well – where there is a professional light show, and full-time staff dedicated to making sure that the production goes off seamlessly, without a hitch. The focal point of the service is really the person attending the gathering. It’s all about experience and emotion and focus and religious entertainment. The sermon or “teaching” is going to come across as extremely relevant – all about you and your experience.
And we don’t want to be either of those churches. We don’t want to be sloppy, thoughtless and irreverent. And at the same time, we don’t want to be focused on the experience of the attendees. We don’t want to take the bait of entertainment culture – seeing what we do as production. Focusing on emotion and experience.
We want to every Sunday recognize that God has invited us to worship him, to come to him. And that he is the audience. The only thing that matters is whether the aroma is pleasing to him.
If you know the basic layout of the Tabernacle, there was an altar outside in the courtyard between the entrance and the Holy Place. And twice each day these burnt offerings would be offered to the Lord. This was the place where God met with the people, upon his invitation.
Moses would meet with God inside the tent, with the Lord’s voice coming from over the top of the Ark of the Covenant. But the people weren’t allowed in there. They met with God at the altar as they brought their offerings to him. And this was all at the invitation of a Holy God, welcoming sinners to come to him.
There are a couple of other significant ideas that we see in Chapter 1 that are foundational to the rest of the book.
Second, Sin leads to death.
This is a Foundational reality of human existence.
And, this is a Foundational reality of true worship.
As human beings, we are, by nature, dead in our sins. We are spiritually dead. And if spiritually dead sinners are going to worship a holy living God, it is necessary for something to die in their place.
Or, we might examine it from another angle. God has set up his world to operate in such a way that there must be repayment made when a wrong is done. There must be an offering made to account for sin.
Sin leads to death. I’m not going to say much more about this for now – we will expand on this as we go, but I wanted it on our radar right at the beginning.
And now we go to our third significant idea:
Third, God gives us the means by which sin can be covered.
We see here that God establishes a system of ritual acts carried out in faith by which our sins can be covered.
And the system that God has put in place is a serious one. God has ordered that blood must be shed to account for sin. We will be talking about this in much greater depth as we work through Leviticus, but I wanted you to see it right away.
We see it perhaps most clearly in verses 3-4 - If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.
God invites his people to worship him – but makes it clear that worship requires atonement. It requires something else to die in the place of the sinner. And so in this scenario – the animal, without blemish or defect, is offered and its life is taken in the place of the one making the offering. And the sin is covered, atoned for.
It’s important to note that I used the word “covered” intentionally here. We will talk more about that when we discuss the Day of Atonement, but we know that this forgiveness was, in a sense, temporary. They had to keep offering these sacrifices over and over again. And these sacrifices, while they offered access to a relationship with God, were not permanent.
Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
These offerings made at the Tabernacle were temporary. They COVERED sin, but they didn’t fix the problem. They made it possible for sinners to live in relationship with God, but they needed to be repeated over and over again.
And they left the worshipers wishing that there was a once-for-all sacrifice. A sacrifice that could remove sin permanently. A sacrifice that gave them assurance that lasted.
And God intended it to be that way. He was creating a hunger, a desire, for a true and better sacrifice – a true and better substitute.
Hebrews 10:12 declares, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins….”
Leviticus 1 is full of arrows like this. Sacrifices that must be repeated twice a day, over and over, in order that the people might receive forgiveness and have access to a relationship with God. What is the purpose of that? It’s an arrow pointing us forward to Jesus. Jesus is the sacrifice brought by the worshipers – but Jesus is a better sacrifice. Offered once and for all on the cross. So that you might be forgiven. So that you might be brought into a relationship with God.
Ok, as we conclude this morning, two major takeaways that I want to leave with you as you reflect on Leviticus 1:
The Lord gladly accepts into his presence those who enter by means of the shed blood of a substitute.
The forgiveness of sins and relationship with God has always been by God’s grace through faith.
And so I would ask you today – do you believe that Jesus is the true and better sacrifice for your sin?
There is no more important question for you to consider this morning.
I trust that this series will point us to Jesus — the lamb of God slain for the sin of the World – over and over and over again. And I pray that you believe this good news – that Jesus offered himself, once and for all so that you could be right with God.