Leviticus 1–3: Law & Sacrifice

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 24: Monday

Then Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,

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“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When any man from among you brings an offering near to Yahweh, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall bring it near, a male without blemish; he shall bring it near to the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.’”

Leviticus 1:1-3 LSB

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Monday’s Bible reading is Leviticus 1–3. At the close of the book of Exodus the Tabernacle has been finished and set up. Now God speaks to Moses from the Tabernacle, giving him specific laws regarding the sacrifices to be made there.

The Israelites are still at Mt. Sinai. Oswald Allis writes:

“The place and time at which these laws are given is carefully defined as during the sojourn at Mt. Sinai (7:38; 25:1; 26:46; 27:34), which lasted until ‘the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month; (Nu. 10:11). The statement of 1:1 presupposes the erection of the Tabernacle which has just been described in Exodus 40.”¹

Allis explains the meaning of the book’s name and the purpose of Leviticus.

“The name Leviticus is derived from the Greek (LXX [Septuagint]) version. It is appropriate in a general way, since the priests were, of course, Levites in the sense of being members of the tribe of Levi. But it is inexact and to the extent misleading.

“The book is especially intended for the priests. Aaron and his sons are mentioned many times in it. The Levites are mention only in one short passage (25:32f.). But while the book is a manual for priests, it is to be noted that many of the laws are introduced by the phrase, ‘Speak to the children of Israel’. Obviously this is because these laws, many of which required the services and mediation of the priest, concerned the people directly and vitally and formed an important part of that law which it was to be the special responsibility of the priests to teach the people (Dt. 31:9; 33:10; Ne. 8). Leviticus is in no sense an esoteric book. The people were entitled and expected to know exactly what was required of them, and of their priests, in that service of the sanctuary which so deeply concerned every Israelite.”²

Derek Kidner divides Leviticus into five major sections.³ If you refer back to this outline it will help you to not get lost in the details.

1. The Five Standard Sacrifices: chs. 1–7
2. The Priesthood Inaugurated: chs. 8–10
3. The Clean and the Unclean: chs. 11–15
4. The Day of Atonement: ch. 16
5. A Holy Nation: chs. 17–27

The book begins with instructions regarding burnt offerings (chapter 1), grain offerings (chapter 2) and peace offerings (chapter 3). As you begin reading this book and are plunged into its many details, you may be wondering about its importance since we’re not living in ancient Israel. Kidner explains significance of Leviticus:

“The scene of Leviticus and Numbers 1–10 is Mount Sinai, and the content of these opening chapters is as daunting as their setting. Yet their unremitting thoroughness gives it own witness to the complete seriousness with which God takes His covenant with His people: it is no casual or arm’s-length relationship, but one which must shape and colour every inch and minute of life, to train up a people whose forms of worship, structure of society and minutest details of behaviour will reflect the holiness of God. Without these chapters we should have had little if any idea of the many facets of sacrifice to which the N.T. makes reference; the high and fearful demands of priesthood; the meaning of the rent veil of the Temple and the bearing away of sin which the great Day of Atonement expounded in advance; nor should we have heard the second of the great commandments, ‘. . . love your neighbor as yourself’.”⁴

Allis writes:

“The book is particularly notable in that it brings together in blended harmony two elements which are regarded by many as quite distinct and even as incompatible. On the one hand, Leviticus is the most thoroughly legalistic of all the books in the OT… Its insistent challenge and persistent demand is, ‘You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.’ On the other hand, there is no book in the OT which more clearly sets forth the redemption which is in Christ than does Leviticus. It faces the question of Job, ‘How can a man be just with God?’, and answers it in such words as the following: ‘He shall bring his offering…’ ‘And he shall confess the sin he has committed…’ ‘And he shall slay it…’ ‘And the priest shall sprinkle the blood…’ ‘And he shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.’”⁵

Atonement is a key word and major theme in Leviticus. Watch for it because the word is used more often than in any other book in the Bible. This alone explains the importance of the book to us.

As you read, also note the many times it says God spoke to Moses. Leviticus again sets a record. Gleason Archer writes:

“No other book in the Bible affirms divine inspiration so frequently as Leviticus. Under the heading of the verb to speak (dibber) alone, the concordance lists no less than thirty-eight occurrences of the statement that Jehovah spoke to Moses or to Aaron. Nothing could be clearer than this entire sacrificial system was no invention of the Hebrew people (either in Moses’ day or in the course of later centuries) but a direct revelation of God. Otherwise no affirmation of divine origin is to be trusted for any statement in the rest of Scripture. While there may be some general resemblances or analogies which can be pointed out between these Levitical regulations and the cultus practiced by other ancient Semites, there is a complete absence of the degrading and superstitious elements characterizing the worship of the idolatrous nations during the Old Testament age.”⁶

Allis concludes his introduction to Leviticus by writing:

“This is the NT gospel for sinners stated in OT terms and enshrined in the ritual of sacrifice; and it finds its fullest expression in the ritual of the Day of Atonement. ‘For the like of the great day of atonement we look in vain in any other people. If every sacrifice pointed to Christ, this most luminously of all. What the fifty-third of Isaiah is to Messianic prophecy, that, we may truly say, is the sixteenth of Leviticus to the whole system of Mosaic types, the most consummate flower of the messianic symbolism’ (S. H. Kellogg). To understand Calvary, and to see it in its tragic glory, we must view it with all the light of the sacred story centred upon it. With Isaiah, the ‘evangelical’ prophet…and with the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we must turn to Leviticus and read of the great Day of Atonement, and of the explanation which is given of it there: ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul’ (Lv. 17:11, AV). Thus we shall see the great drama of redemption unfolding before our eyes and, in the light of the type, begin to understand the Antitype.”^7,8

In the New Testament the book of Hebrews talks extensively about the sacrificial system of Israel. Jesus is referred to as our High Priest eighteen times in Hebrews.

Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 2:17 LSB

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This is why Leviticus is important.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

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For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Hebrews 9:11–12, 24 LSB

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The Giving of Laws on Sinai: William Brassey Hole. Public Domain.
^1,2,5,7Oswald T. Allis, “Leviticus,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 140, 140, 141, 141–142.
^3,4Derek Kidner, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Scripture Union Bible Study Books (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI: 1971) 4, 3. Kidner does not give any New Testamant Scripture references in this paragraph. The links are to verses I chose. The book of Hebrews wonderfully explains the work done by the Lord Jesus, the High Priest of our Confession.
⁶Gleason L. Archer, Jr., “Leviticus and Numbers,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1974) 240.
⁸See Exodus 9–12: Death & The Passover Lamb for Edmund Clowney’s explanation of type and antitype.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.