Today we will reach the end of the book of Leviticus by looking at the final 11 chapters of the book. While it may seem like an overwhelming task, we are looking at these chapters together because they serve a very unified purpose in this book. In the first 16 chapters, we have seen what was necessary for the holy God to dwell in the midst of a sinful people – culminating in the glorious Day of Atonement ceremony that we looked at last week. We have seen very clearly that, in order for God to dwell in the midst of the people, their sins and uncleannesses must be dealt with on a regular basis. Having seen that, these final 11 chapters of the book move to the arena of everyday living. In essence, these chapters lay out the way that the people should live in light of the fact that God dwells in their presence and in light of the fact that they belong to Him as His people. Up to this point, we have been focusing on ritual concerns that have to do with making sure that the people are atoned for and cleansed. In these final 11 chapters, we move to ethical concerns that have to do with the way the people should live.
As we look at these chapters, we will first look at the essence of the laws themselves. We want to understood what the Israelites heard and why that was important for them. But having seen that strict message of the text, we then have to examine how we relate to these laws. Are they still binding on us? Must we obey all of them or only some of them? To answer these questions, we will have to examine the very purpose of these laws. Then we will seek to understand exactly how we, as Christians in 2008, should live in light of these laws.
As we come to these chapters, the thing we should keep in mind is that the central message of these chapters is that the Israelites must live holy lives because their God is holy. They must be holy because He is holy. As we will see, it is this foundational principle that underlies all of these commands – they are not random commands. But before looking at that, we should seek to understand the commands themselves.
The Laws Themselves – they were not general guidelines but specific laws about various aspects of life
As we look at these 11 chapters, it becomes clear from the beginning that the themes of the chapters are extremely varied. These are very explicit laws that touch almost every aspect of life for the Israelites. To begin, Leviticus 17 deals with the issue of blood and its relation to God. God makes clear that any animal that is slaughtered must be brought to the tent of meeting. This rule applies not only to ethnic Israelites but even to foreigners living among the Israelites (17:1-9). We will examine this more later, but the essence of this command is that sacrifices are only made to God. A sacrifice made to any other will result in the condemnation of the one who offers the sacrifice. Moreover, God then makes very clear that both the Israelites and foreigners living among them must refrain from eating any blood (17:10-16). Once again, the logic behind this command is that this blood belongs to God, and its only proper use is to be offered to God.
Leviticus 18 lays out various laws related to sexual relations (18:1-30). In great detail, God makes clear that certain relationships carry with them an absolute prohibition on sexual relations. The Israelites are not to have such relations with “close relatives” (18:6) – including parents, grandchildren, aunts, daughters-in-law, sisters-in-law and siblings. All such relations are forbidden by God. Moreover, same-sex relationships and bestiality are likewise forbidden. These are explicit laws meant to govern sexual relationships. As we will see, these are not random legislations, but they are grounded in the very character and acts of God.
Leviticus 19 actually addresses various concerns. After reiterating the command that peace offerings should be eaten according to certain standards (19:5-8), God lays out a series of laws relating to interactions with neighbors (19:9-18). Many of these laws are actually restatements of the Ten Commandments, and they all serve to demonstrate that true love for a neighbor means that one is treated a certain way – one should not steal from a neighbor, swear falsely, oppress a neighbor or even hate a brother. The remainder of the chapter consists of further miscellaneous laws regarding holy living. These laws range from dealing with immorality involving a slave to occult practices and economic injustice (19:19-37). In all of these things, God lays out a particular way of living that should characterize the lives of the Israelites. Because they are God’s people, they should love their neighbors as they love themselves.
Leviticus 21-22 address an issue that has been touched on already: the holiness that is necessary for the priests and offerings. We saw in Leviticus 1-7 that the offerings had to be without blemish, but no clear explanation is offered until these chapters. God first walks through a series of regulations regarding the priests. The priests are to remain absolutely clean – avoiding contact with any dead body and refusing to marry any woman who is not a virgin. Moreover, the priests cannot have any visible deformities. They must be clean (21:1-22:16). Likewise, the offerings must meet these same requirements – they cannot have any visible deformities (22:17-33). Just like the regulations for the people, there is a standard of holiness that must be met by the priests and the offerings that is rooted in the character of God himself. Because God is holy, the priests and offerings must be holy.
In Leviticus 23, God gives instructions regarding the various religious festivals that the people were supposed to celebrate. We do not have time to talk about the details of each festival, but this section includes instructions for feasts and festivals ranging from the Passover (which commemorated the final plague in Egypt), to the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks (both of which celebrated the faithfulness of the Lord in providing crops). In essence, these were festivals in which the people remembered and celebrated who the Lord was and what he had done for them. These were theological celebrations in which certain truths about God were declared and typified. Because of who God is and what he has done, the people were to celebrate these festivals.
The cultic (that is, dealing with worship) emphasis continues in the first half of Leviticus 24 with instructions regarding the lamps and the bread that were in the tent of meeting (24:1-9). Part of the ethical responsibility of the Israelites was to ensure that the lamps burned continually and that the bread was in its place. This bread was consumed by the priests (in this case, Aaron and his sons), so these ethical instructions were part of God’s way of providing for the priests.
Leviticus 25 deals specifically with the issue of the redemption of people and things. Specifically, God makes clear that every seventh year is to be a year of rest for the land from farming – a Sabbath year. Moreover, every seventh Sabbath year is a year of jubilee in which all debts are forgiven and all property that had been forfeited over the last 50 years was returned to its original owner. God goes on to give detailed instruction on how property and those who were poor were to be redeemed if they had been sold (25:1-55). Because God is holy, there is a specific way that his people are to act with regard to the enslaving of other people as well as the taking of property in order to pay a debt.
Leviticus 27 closes out this section, and the book of Leviticus as a whole, by addressing the issue of vows (27:1-34). This final chapter’s focus is on the way that vows are to be handled when they are made. The essence of the chapter is that God took vows very seriously. If a person makes a vow consisting of people or animals or property, they are responsible to keep that vow exactly as it was made. If they do not keep that vow, there are consequences. The making of vows is a serious issue, and God ensured that His people kept the vows that they made.
The Foundation for the Laws – they were rooted in the character and work of God
Having seen the laws themselves, it is important for us to remember – as I mentioned earlier – that these laws were not just spur-of-the-moment, random declarations from God. These were not foundational laws that God pulled out of thin air. Rather, these laws were all rooted in the very character and acts of God. More specifically, God is absolutely holy – as we have seen throughout Leviticus. God chose the nation of Israel to be His people. In a very real sense, they became his treasured possession. And because God is perfectly holy, that which belongs to him as his possession must be holy as well. Because the people of Israel were God’s people, they had to be holy as He was holy.
We see this very clearly in the text itself. In Leviticus 17, as God as making clear that sacrifices are only to be made to Him as God, he tells the people “So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore” (17:7a). Here we see the purpose for this law – it is not just that the tent of meeting was the only place a sacrifice could ever happen. Rather, such a law prevented the people from every making an offering to any other God. The issue in this law is not so much the bringing of the animal to the tent as it is that God is the only God to whom sacrifices are made. Because God’s presence (at least, in the life of Israel) was centered on the tent of meeting, all proper sacrifices were brought to him. The root of this law was the essential fact that there is only one God who is to be worshipped.
Likewise, in Leviticus 18, we see that the laws on sexual relations have their specific foundation in what God has done. God says, “I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules” (18:2b-5a). Here we see that God is making clear to the Israelites that their conduct is not determined by their culture but by their God. They are not to imitate the wickedness around them. Rather, they are to imitate the holiness of their God. He reiterates this exhortation in 18:24-30 and makes clear that the Canaanites are being destroyed because of their sin. The Israelites are to be unlike the wicked Canaanites and like their God. These are no arbitrary laws; they are rooted in God’s character.
God makes the same points in Leviticus 19 as he begins the chapter by telling Moses, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (19:2). Here again, the instructions that God is about to give are rooted in his character. God then ends chapter 19 by saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord” (19:36b-37). Here we see again that the commands are also rooted in what God has done for them – he redeemed them. And because He is holy, the ones He has redeemed must be holy.
Chapter 20 ends with this same idea as God says, “You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (20:25-26).
Interestingly, even the laws regarding the holiness of priests and offerings are rooted in these same things. God says of the priest, “He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy” (21:8). He goes on to say “They [the priests] shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (22:15-16). And God closes those two chapters by saying, “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord” (22:31-33).
Even the instructions regarding the festivals are introduced with these words from God: “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts” (23:2). With the blatant declaration that these are “my” [i.e. the Lord’s] feasts, God is making clear that the people of Israel are to keep these feasts because God has told them to do so. They are to obey and follow the holy God who has redeemed them.
We even see this idea underlying the discussion in chapter 25 regarding the redemption of people and property. Regarding the land that the Israelites will possess, God says, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land” (25:23-24). In an astounding declaration, God is making clear that the land actually belongs to Him and not the Israelites. Once again, God is making clear that the people belong to Him – as does everything they possess. It is ultimately His. When God speaks about kindness to poor brothers, he says, “For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves” (25:42). Again, the people of Israel are not to remain slaves forever because they ultimately belong to God and not to another Israelite. As God says at the close of chapter 25, “For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (25:55).
So we see very clearly that these laws are not arbitrary decisions of God. Rather, they are rooted in the vary fabric of His identity. They are intimately connected with the fact that God has redeemed Israel as a people for Himself. Because God is holy and Israel is His possession, they should be holy as He is holy.
The Stakes for Keeping the Laws – obedience brings great blessing and disobedience brings great cursing
The final element of these laws that we see very clearly is that there are consequences for both obedience and disobedience. This idea of consequence is alluded to all throughout this section with quick declarations (17:4,9,16; 18:5,29; 19:8; 20:27; 21:9; 22:3), but there are also some parts of the text that explicitly make clear the seriousness of keeping these laws. There is a great deal riding on whether these laws are kept or not. It is not as if God is merely wishing for these laws to be kept while simultaneously being powerless to enforce any of these things. There are rewards and blessings for those who obey, and there are punishments and curses for those who disobey.
We first see this idea in chapter 20 – which is made up almost entirely of the punishments that should be meted out on those who practice child sacrifice (20:1-9) and sexual immorality (20:10-21). This chapter is very clear that the one who offers a child in sacrifice should be put to death (20:2). Likewise, one who turns to sorcerers will be rejected by God (20:6). One who curses his parents is put to death (20:9), and those who commit adultery are put to death as well (20:10). This entire chapter makes clear that God takes this issue of holiness very seriously. Even for those Israelites who God had rescued and made his own, their disobedience could result in their being rejected by God and even in their being put to death.
This issue comes up as well in the last half of Leviticus 24 as we read a story about an Israeli-Egyptian young man who blasphemed the name of God while fighting with another Israelite. The people come before the Lord inquiring what they should do, and the Lord declares that the young man should be put to death (24:10-16). This seems unbelievably harsh and yet, this makes clear to us just how serious is the keeping of these laws. The disobedience of these laws carries consequences and God even lays out some of those explicit consequences in Leviticus 24:17-23.
But the most explicit part of our text in which this issue is addressed is Leviticus 26. In the first part of the chapter, God makes clear that if the Israelites obey, he will bless their harvests and cause them to be plentiful. He also promises them safety and peace as well as victory over their enemies. Finally, He promises that His presence will dwell in their midst (26:1-13). In the second part of the chapter, God focuses his attention on what will happen if the Israelites disobey. In stark language, God makes clear that disobedience will bring about disease, terrible harvests, and many other things that demonstrate the discipline of the Lord. God goes on to say that increasing disobedience will result in increasing judgment. The Israelites, rather than conquering enemies, will themselves be conquered. Interestingly, though, the chapter closes with a promise that repentance from disobedience will result in renewed grace from the Lord. There is much at stake here in keeping these laws. Indeed, the very life of the Israelites hangs in the balance.
Understanding what this text says, our next step this morning is to understand how this text relates to us so many years later. How do we engage these laws? In order to answer this question, we must first understand the place and purpose of the Law in the Old Testament and in the Bible as a whole.
The Place and Purpose of the Law. Within the book of Leviticus, these chapters serve as application of what has gone before. Up to this point, we have seen very clearly what is necessary for the holy God to dwell in the midst of the sinful people of Israel. These chapters detail what is expected of those who are God’s people. God has brought this nation into existence from the seed of Abraham. He has redeemed them from the slavery of Egypt – effectively making them his possession. Now, through the many ceremonies and sacrifices and stipulations that we have seen in Leviticus 1-16, he is taking up residence in their midst. In light of those things, these 11 chapters tell us how Israel should live with God in their midst.
The problem is that there is a weakness to this Law – it commands the Israelites to obey and yet does not provide them with the capability to do so. Israel has been redeemed and God is commanding them to obey. The problem is that the people cannot obey, and the Law cannot help them to obey. If we are familiar with the Old Testament at all, we know that Israel failed miserably in keeping these laws. Indeed, 2 Kings 17:7-23 makes clear that Israel failed in every part of this law. Rather than worshiping God alone, they pursued false gods. Rather than being different from the nations around them, they mimicked them. Rather than being holy as God was holy, they were wicked as the surrounding nations were wicked. And, true to his promises, God judged them.
But this is where, in order to understand how we should engage with this text in Leviticus, we have to understand that this weakness of the Law did not catch God by surprise. In fact, the purpose of the Law was never to provide a means by which people could obey it. God himself knew this to be true because he promised a new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-40. This is why the author of Hebrews writes, “…if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Heb. 8:7). Here we see very clearly that God knew that the people did not have the capability to keep the Law of Leviticus 17-27. That is why the second covenant will consist of His law being written on the heart – that is, the law will be obeyed out of a heart that is able to obey. God makes clear that, in the new covenant, He will not only command people to obey (there will still be a law, as we will see shortly) but enable them to obey. The weakness of this law and this covenant is that it did not enable. This is why Paul writes, “…if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law” (Gal. 3:21b). By even using the word “if” Paul is making clear that the law never had the capability to give life.
Christ as the Fulfillment of the Law
But if the law was powerless in that regard, why was it even given? What is the point of Leviticus 17-27 if it is impossible to obey and was flawed in the first place? The answer to these questions is that the Law’s ultimate purpose is to condemn – so that we might be pointed to our need for a Savior.
This is why Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:17 is so revolutionary and crucial to our understanding. In that passage, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus is making a striking claim about the Law – that its central purpose was to point to Him. This is a thought that is echoed throughout the New Testament – especially by Paul who tells the Romans that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). Paul is making clear that the path to God’s blessing is not through keeping the Law but through the person of Jesus Christ. God promised blessing to those who obeyed the Law, but sinful people could not obey it. Instead, as Paul says, “the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me” (Rom. 7:10). But thankfully, Jesus Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness. Our hope for blessedness is not in keeping these Levitical laws but in trusting in Christ.
This understanding of the Law’s purpose is crucial if we are to understand how we should interact with and respond to Leviticus 17-27. If we read and understand these chapters of Leviticus rightly, we will not first and foremost be motivated to obey the commands found there. Rather, if we read it rightly, we will be condemned in our own sinfulness. And we will be pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ who is the perfect fulfillment of these chapters. As Paul makes clear in Gal. 3:21-29, the Law was meant to imprison us in our sin. It was meant to hold us captive. It was meant to be our guardian. It was meant to serve these functions until Christ came so that salvation might be through faith alone and not through any sort of works. If we read Lev. 17-27 in such a way that we are moved to obey it, we read it wrongly. The point of these chapters – in the grand scheme – is not to engender perfect obedience. Rather, the point of these chapters is to convince us of our own lack of obedience and to point out for us the need for a Savior.
The purpose of the Law – the purpose of Leviticus 17-27 – is not achieved in our lives when we are convinced to do our best to try to obey all of these laws. The purpose of Leviticus 17-27 is achieved in our lives when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our only hope for salvation. That is the purpose of the Law.
Understanding, then, that the central purpose of the Law is to point us to Christ, that should cause us to wonder how the Old Testament law applies to us. If the purpose of the Law was to point us to Christ, does that mean the Old Testament Law is now obsolete?
First, we should understand very clearly that no part of the Old Testament Law is binding upon us as Christians. Paul says explicitly in Romans 7:4-6, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” Paul is very explicit in saying that we “have died to the law” and that “we are released from the law.” Galatians 3 makes very clear that “the law was our guardian until Christ came…but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Gal. 3:24-25). Even more explicitly, Paul told the Corinthians, “To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law” (1 Cor. 9:20b-21). Here Paul makes very clear that he is not under the Old Testament Law in any way – though he is willing to live under that Law if it brings people to Christ.
This quote from Paul in 1 Corinthians fully answers this question for us as well. We err if we assume that not being under the Old Testament Law means that we are under no law at all. Rather, we are under the law of Christ. Even in Matthew 5, when Jesus is talking about having come to fulfill the Law, he makes clear that “whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments [the commandments found in Matthew 5, not the commandments of the Old Testament Law] and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). Just like Paul, we are under the law of Christ, and we should labor to study the word and find out what that law entails so that we might obey it.
Also, we might be tempted to assume that once we are in Christ, we have no further need for the Old Testament Law. The problem with this thought is that it assumes that we only need to be directed to Christ once – at the point of conversion. Such a thought misunderstands the Scriptures. Faith is not a one-time event but a way of life. We all, as Christians, live by faith and not by sight. Anything that directs us to Jesus Christ is a blessing and should be read as often as possible. So read the Old Testament Law often so that you might be reminded of your own sinful wickedness. Read the Old Testament Law often so that you might be continually directed to your savior, Jesus Christ.
The application of this text is not difficult. For those who are not believers, you must understand your complete inability to live up to this standard. James makes clear, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10). If you have ever sinned, you have fallen short of the glory of God, and you sit under his fierce wrath. This law that we have read this morning condemns you. But there is hope in Jesus Christ. Jesus perfectly kept this law. And then he died on the cross and was raised so that we as sinful people might be made righteous. This law is not merely here to condemn you but to point you to Jesus Christ! There is hope. Repent of your sins and believe and you will be saved.
For those of us who are believers, this text should cause us to glory in our redeemer. As we come to the table, let us rejoice in our Savior who has made us new and granted us life. Let us delight in the One who rescued us from the condemnation of this law and set us free to live in the new life of the Spirit. Amen.