GWS Leviticus
GWS Leviticus
[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome to God's Whole Story. This year, we are doing a journey through Scripture, book by book. Each week, you will get a deeper dive into one of the books of Scripture so that you can see God's whole story. If you like the content you're receiving, we would love to have you partner with us.
Look in the show notes for a way that you can support us financially so we can continue to provide this content for you. Hope you enjoy this episode. Hey everybody this week we get to spend time in the book of Leviticus everyone's Favorite book. I mean Ryan Chelsea. I know you guys love the book of Leviticus, right?
I actually do Well, I know you love it more than I do. So I don't want to steal your thunder But I I do actually like this. I love listening to you talk about it Okay, no pressure Well, I Isn't it, it is true though, like if you talk about, say the average Christian, what's one of your least favorite books of the Bible or one that you, maybe you start a chronological Bible plan [00:01:00] and the Genesis is awesome, Exodus is awesome, well kind of, a little bit tough to get through some of the tabernacle details towards the end, but then you hit Leviticus and that Bible reading plan just, That's like the stereotypical like February Christian discussion.
Yeah. I was doing the daily Bible reading and then I got to Leviticus. Yeah. Done. I know. Uh, I used to lead a Bible study Bible school that we went through all six to six books. And many times at the end of the year, we'd ask our students what their favorite book was and without fail. Year after year, the number one answer was Leviticus.
Yeah. That's cool. All right. Convince us, Chris. Yeah. And I think some of it is because they had never read it before. Cause they always died in there, you know, trying to read their Bibles. But when you see, not died, but you know, You sent her on that podcast from a Tara Lee Cobble from Bible recap. She said she described herself as a Genesis scholar.
Yes. Because she had read Genesis so many times in January. Every like every January she read Genesis. Shout out to the Bible recap. Great podcast. Daily Bible reading podcast. It is not as good as God's whole story. [00:02:00] Maybe. Oh, no. We might be biased in, but we still do want to promote anybody. It is actually quite good.
Anyway, uh, I think it was people's favorite because you see so much of what God's heart is and how he wants to draw people in a relationship with him, because that's really why we have all these details. It wasn't that students love the blood and guts and of all the sacrifices. It's because they saw Jesus.
It's because they saw this was leading people to find forgiveness of sin and ultimately pointing towards Jesus. I do love to point out that you actually cannot understand Jesus. If you don't understand Leviticus, like if you really strive to figure out what's going on in Leviticus, you actually will see Jesus.
Um, but if you want to understand what Jesus is up to in the Gospels, understanding Leviticus will help you a lot. And also another good book to understand Leviticus is the book of Hebrews. Uh, many times when our students were studying Leviticus, we'd require that they would also then read the book of Hebrews.
Cause it just [00:03:00] really shows how Jesus fulfills every aspect of the old covenant, especially the things that are talked about. So just to kind of set the tone a little bit and remind us where we've come from, we've gone through Genesis. Uh, Israel came out of 400 years of slavery when they went through the Red Sea.
God brought them into the promised land. Going to worship God, the promised land was meant to be a good place. Um, there was still that hope from all the way back to Genesis three, that a Messiah would come and deal with sin, death, and the enemy. So they're waiting for that promised Messiah. God defines what sin is through the 10 commandments, but then they still have to figure out, okay, as we wait for the promised Messiah, that was promised in Genesis three, how do we deal with sin?
How do we walk in right relationship with each other? How do we. Walk with a holy God, even as people that mess up and are sinful. Uh, that that's really [00:04:00] what Leviticus is trying to help them accomplish. And the way that Leviticus does it, the way that God helps them to deal with their sins is through the offering of sacrifice through killing an animal, usually an animal, but if you were poor, it could be a sacrifice of grain or something like that.
Um, so. Why did God have them kill animals? Why was blood so important in this? What do you, what do you, what do you guys think? Like, did God just kind of like blood? Um It feels so weird when you phrase it that way. It does! Well, but, but people ask this. I mean, like, what Like, why, why is there all this killing of animals, especially, um, people that just really have a high view of animals equal to humans, humans, this is a really tough book for them to, to swallow.
I guess as like a worthy aside, you just drew attention to the fact that actually it was not always. Animals. Um, so that would, [00:05:00] that would necessarily draw us away from the fact that God just loves blood. Um, because he actually made a way for people who could not afford to sacrifice an animal to have a sacrifice that was usually like a grain offering or, um, oil offerings, something like that.
Um, I guess I did not, I tactfully did not answer your question, but. Well, then even if you are sacrificing grains, so to speak, what's the common denominator, whether it's an animal or a grain? And it's that. That thing that was alive is going to die. Yeah. Yeah. That has value. It does have value. It's costly.
Like every time you sin, it costs you something. Cause you can't just go to the sacrifice minute stop, you know, uh, and pick up one. Like it's got to come from your own possession. It costs you money. It affects your family. And sin brings death. I mean, that is something that we see throughout scripture in that when those animals or even that grain was burned up, it, it died.
Um, so is that the answer? [00:06:00] What do you think? I mean, I'm convinced because I really don't know. Listen, anything you say to me about Leviticus, I'll be like, yeah, that's probably true. So there's a high value, there's a high value on life and like a lot of, um, ancient Hebrew Israeli culture kind of centers around that respect for blood because you like even being clean and unclean centers around blood a lot of times, um, to where there's this reverence around the life that is present in the blood.
Is that right? Like there's, there's reverence for that. And then the, the sacrifice draws attention to the fact that judgment is a necessary part of our lives and we have to atone for sin and atonement for sin requires. The sacrifice of life pretty much always. And that remains true to this day. It's just that we're not, we're not doing goats and sheep.
There are actually still people in the world that are doing goats and sheep. You can go visit Samaria right now. And they're having regular sacrifices of goats and sheep and cows and all the time, cows, I guess, but, [00:07:00] um, There are people that still do it, but we don't need to do it because Jesus is the ultimate payment for our sins.
And I think it really, it points back to even when sin first entered the world, the concept, like even before it entered the world, God warned them that if you do this, you will die. So the, the death was always connected to sin and that it was always the consequences. It was always a result. And so when people sin, the.
Wages, as the way the New Testament says it, or the price to take care of that sin is death. Uh, and that, that's been kind of in the way that God does things from the beginning. Um, you know, sometimes even when we think about these sacrifices, it's, it's, we're so far removed from it. It's kind of hard to put ourselves in the shoes, but like if you just think about a basic sacrifice, The person who sins, they had to take one of their own animals.
They had to go down to the tabernacle. There was one place to sacrifice. So there's a lot of people here. [00:08:00] So it's very costly time, all that kind of stuff. And the person who sins is the one who actually kills the animal. Uh, for years, I always thought the priest had the worst job. They were, they were killing all this stuff, but actually the sinner kills the animal.
They butcher the animal, they gut the animal, they wash the animal, the priest gathers the blood, takes the different parts, and uses it for the sacrifice. But it's the sinner's responsibility to actually do everything. And what, it's a very visual reminder that your sin killed this animal. That before you sinned, that animal was fine, hanging out with the other sheep, you know, just having a good old time.
Aw. But your sin brought death. And it's God's grace that he allows a substitute. Um, whether that's an animal, whether it's, whether it's green, it's God's grace that he doesn't say, Oh, the very first time you sin, you're dead. Cause that's, that's the consequences of sin. He allows an animal to take our place.[00:09:00]
And to be sacrificed so that we can receive that forgiveness of sin, or the Old Testament believers can receive that. Um, but it's, it's a very visual, time consuming activity to engage in this. I think one of the most visual representations, uh, there, there are several, but the one that always gets my attention, I'm not sure it's actually in Leviticus, but the provision for the scapegoat, where the community actually is called to place their hands on the animal.
Um, When it roams out and is cast out, that isn't it. And so it is like, it's directly connected. Like you're, like, you're saying your sin is on this animal and it's gone. It's going to carry, carry the sins of all of you. Huh? Interesting. Yeah. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a few minutes, probably.
But, uh, yeah. And this is like, there's variations of sacrifices. Some of them are for worship. Um, but the sacrifices for sin, like the idea here is you need to make a sacrifice. Each and every time you sin, which the more you sin, the more it costs [00:10:00] you, the more that death happens. And like, you can kind of, as you put yourself in the shoes, you can kind of go, I don't want to sin because it costs my family, it costs me, it takes a lot of time.
I have less money because that was your income for your animals. I have less food. Like we clearly see the negative consequences of sin that it's not just an individual act, but it affects your whole family. It affects your community. Okay. I don't know if I have a question here. I'm going to start talking and see where I end up.
Um, so currently as a Christian who I've trusted in Jesus, his provision for me is enough. Um, ideally out of love for Jesus, I obey his commands. And I, through the power of the Holy Spirit and grace, sin becomes further and further removed from my life as I become more and more Christlike. It feels like in the 21st century, without, there's sometimes there's [00:11:00] just not a cost to sin.
And it's like, in some ways, I'm just like, maybe this is more effective because it's like costing you something where like, sometimes you can just get away with sin and it doesn't cost you anything. I mean, on the surface, of course it costs much more. Sin is always costly. Yes. Yes. But you can fall into the trap of believing this isn't hurting anyone and I'm able to get away with this in a way.
It's actually not necessarily just a 21st century phenomenon because even, even in the old Testament, we'll see that people are trying to hide their sin. Right. And so like, even with that sacrificial system in place, people were like, maybe I won't, maybe I won't get caught. Well, even, even the best intentioned.
Old Testament believer, they're going to get to a point where they have to come to this place where they say, I can't do this because if you do, you need to make sacrifice for every sinful action. Okay. We're going back to the 10 [00:12:00] commandments here. What defines sin? And in the 10 commandments, you can send with your words in the 10 commandments.
You can send with your thoughts, covenant in your internal world to make a sacrifice for each and every individual sin and have a million people do that at the same time, because there's a million people sitting here in this place. It's just, It's actually not even possible. There's even sacrifices, uh, required for sins that you, like, weren't sure you committed, or forgot you committed, or Well, if the wages are death, you'd be safe.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You want to be safe, not sorry, like, because if the wages are death, well, let's throw in a couple extra just to be sure. Um, but it, what, what the, this thing does is It shows how serious sin is, but it also shows us our inability to pay for our own sin, that even the best intention Old Testament believer, it drives them to the place where they say, I can't do this.
And they remember the promise that Genesis says that he will come and deal with sin, death, and the enemy. And you're actually putting your faith in something [00:13:00] greater. Now, I, we had referenced a little bit before that there is a foreshadowing of this in Leviticus 2 that, that's this back and forth of individual sacrifices day after day, never feeling like it's good enough, wondering if you're okay.
There's one day a year where everyone knows they're okay. That's talked about in Leviticus chapter 16, the day of atonement. And Ryan, you had referenced that, you know, Part of the day of atonement is something called the scapegoat that there's all kinds of sacrifices that happen during this day. The nation gathers together once a year.
They confess their sins from morning till night, and towards the end of the day, they take two goats. The priest puts his hand on the head of the one goat, kind of symbolically transferring all the sin of the nation to that goat. They drive that goat from their midst, symbolic of the fact that their sin is gone.
Um, and at that point, that one day a year, The entire nation celebrates and they have this festival because they for that day, every single sin, [00:14:00] even the ones they didn't sacrifice for are removed because it has been driven from their midst. And that one day a year is a foreshadowing of what Christ accomplished.
That Jesus was the scapegoat that took the sins out of the camp and they got to experience that once a year. 364 other days they woke up sacrificing, sacrificing, wondering if it's enough, but once a year they got to taste what Jesus has done for us 365 days. That's why Leviticus is so exciting. I remember so vividly when I hit chapter 16 in my studies going through the Bible and it was just like, stop, put everything down.
This is like, this is my application of this entire book that this is what everything is pointing towards this, this foreshadowing. So, um, Um, and it's so much of it points to that, but we can't understand it apart from also understanding we cannot fix the problem of sin, [00:15:00] even if the best, most observant Jew cannot.
Amen. Completely follow the law in the sacrificial system. It's meant for us to say, I can't do it. And when we do, we lift up our eyes and put our hope in someone who can. That promise coming Messiah, who we now know to be revealed as Jesus. In, uh, in Acts 15, the early church is dealing with this huge problem because Like the, the Jewish background believers, um, are actually sending out essentially missionaries to the Gentile background believers and being like, Hey, you need to start to follow the law.
Like now, like, that's super cool. We love that. You love Jesus. You want to follow Jesus. You better get circumcised and start following the law. So in acts 15, they have this huge council to figure out like, okay, this is kind of a problem because. Do you have to follow the law? Do you not have to follow the law?
And Peter stands up. It's kind of like this monumental moment in the chapter and really in the whole book, Peter stands up and says, Hey, like I've been seeing the Holy spirit fall on people who didn't do anything with the law. Like they weren't [00:16:00] circumcised. They didn't know even how to offer a sacrifice.
So I think the Holy spirit is sealing. All people now who come to faith, and why would we put this yoke, this burden on people when we know ourselves that we ourselves and our fathers and our fathers before them could never fulfill the requirements of the law. So even Peter in Acts 15 is like. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to actually do this.
We need provision and Jesus is that provision. It's really interesting. I mean, think about the old Testament heroes, like the guys that we think about Moses, even in like, do we have a record of Moses for himself, for his own sin, showing up at the temple day after day, sacrificing for his own sins. Like we actually don't see that because I think they got the big picture that it was about trust in the promise rather than.
Sacrifice. Usually when we see sacrificing of these heroes, it's out of worship. So kind of circling back to your, your question, Chelsea, like, is, [00:17:00] is it easier to kind of like realize how costly sin is and how much we want to stay away from when we have to do something? Um, I mean, how, how do we like, what motivates us to stay away from sin today?
What motivates you? I think studying the Bible and seeing how costly it was for the Israelites. To perform sacrifices for the purpose of forgiveness of sin sheds a light on just how costly Jesus's sacrifice was. And so recognizing the cost of Jesus' sacrifice, recognizing the humiliation and ascension of Jesus in all the ways.
The humiliation of becoming human, the humiliation of the cross, if you believe it, the humiliation, even more going into hell, um, and then ascending to heaven again, that there was a cost for Jesus and that, that propels me to love him and love for him propels me to [00:18:00] not want any part of sin in my life. Um, and so that's why the Bible is so important.
That's why the old Testament still has value for us today. It's why it's important to study it because we get a picture of why Jesus did this. And we've said it before, Israel's history is also our history as believers. We now share a family history. Um, And yeah, recognizing that cost sheds a light on what Jesus did for us.
I was listening to, um, uh, Kevin DeYoung talk about Exodus and this actually applies to this too, but he was talking about, imagine being the people of Israel for the hundreds and hundreds of years between the sacrificial system when Jesus came and you're doing those sacrifices. You have the day of atonement, you're smelling the mangled burning flesh of an animal, you're giving up your.
Property for sacrifice over and over and over again. And then you're the disciples sitting [00:19:00] in the upper room with Jesus. And he says, this is my body being broken for you. This is my blood being spilled for you. Like, imagine what that feeling would have been maybe confusion, but also like, Oh my goodness.
Hopefully like a Holy spirit revelation of this is what we've been waiting for our whole lives. Um, yeah, you, but you can't get that. That feeling of like, Oh my gosh, look at Jesus did without starting in Genesis and going to Jesus. You can get to Jesus this by faith and grace, but if you really want to appreciate it and come into deeper knowledge and revelation of who Jesus is.
So we asked the question earlier and said that this book really tries to answer how does a sinful people approach a holy God? Uh, and one of the most memorable phrases throughout this book is be holy as I am holy. That's one way. [00:20:00] In this book, we see who God is, his holiness, his standard, and that standard is perfection.
Um, and how does a sinful person approach that holy God? Well, it actually isn't by keeping all the sacrifices. It isn't by following the law perfectly because that's just not possible. It starts with faith. It starts with trust. It starts with saying, I can't do it in my own strength. I need someone who can.
And then, Once you put that faith and that trust in, in the promise of the Messiah that was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, it's that love and gratitude that you have for what Jesus accomplishes that then motivates you to Live a holy life, not with the burden of, I have to be perfect, but I want to look more like Jesus, not less like him.
And I don't know about you guys. Like, yeah, I, I am singing less obviously, um, than I used to, but sometimes the more that I follow Jesus, I actually. There were things [00:21:00] that I didn't even know were sin when I first started following Jesus, that as I realized just how pure and holy he is, I'm like, Oh, that's sinful.
That's arrogance. That's pride. That's, you know, all these things that like. In the beginning, I was just worried about like the top 10 commandments, you know, something like, but you just realize how broken we actually are. Yes. I'm becoming more Christ like, but I'm also realizing the depth of my brokenness and it causes me to have a greater love and a greater gratitude for what Christ has done.
That's why I love Leviticus. Leviticus Lotswap. Leviticus Lotswap. I haven't heard that in a little while, which, uh, so that's a reference to our daily podcast. I don't know. Shameless plug. How did that start? Did I christen myself Leviticus Lotspal? Uh, I don't know. That would be my favorite way of telling the story.
I hope it's, I hope it's true. Anyway, uh, I do have a That's how I was introduced to you. I do have a distinct memory of One day Chris came in and said, I'm Leviticus Lotspal from now on. I think it [00:22:00] was, I really was excited about this, and somehow it just rolled off my tongue. Yep, Lotspal or something, but I definitely remember Someone walking up to me at church on a Sunday and saying, Hey, Leviticus Lotspawn.
I was like, Oh my goodness. So if you really want to know more about that story, go check out our daily podcast, where we dive into a lot more detail on these passages. I'm sure we talked a lot about the Day of Atonement back then. Um, but yeah, that's something you could check out for a little bit more information.
I would say for this book specifically, for Leviticus specific, I mean, always. But for Leviticus specifically, we really are just scratching the surface here. Like, like in a pretty sincere way, we're just 30, 000 foot view. Yeah. So I actually would strongly recommend because, because it's so critical to understanding what Jesus is up to, what the disciples are experiencing.
Um, I would highly recommend, and it's not like a separate podcast. It's just the last, the last go round we had, I guess. Like it would be an earlier episode on this [00:23:00] podcast itself. Uh, go back and listen to them. Like consider like before next week, kind of digesting each one of those to understand really what's going on in La Vegas.
It would be really, really good for you. Maybe you too can find out why this may become your favorite book of the Bible. You guys can report back to us how that even happened. Yes. Yes. Well, Hey, uh, It's been great talking about this book and next week we are jumping into numbers so we've been talking about how God deals with the sinful people and we're gonna see a sinful people next week so looking forward to it we'll see you next week bye
