Introduction to Old Testament Studies: Part 13

Leviticus makes up the Body of Priestly Code. Attempts to draw out for the people what makes them holy. What distinguishes or separates them from those who are not holy.

The Emphasis in Leviticus upon sacrifices and offerings enables us to appreciate the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary

Sacrifice

There are different types of sacrifices, but the purpose of these sacrifices are for:

Propitiation - Seeking to cool the wrath of God

Expiation - removal of sin

With that in mind sacrifices will be to Appease angry god(s), To promote fellowship with god, Communion between worshiper and deity, A gift to god, Act of praise.

General Procedure

Regardless of which sacrifice was offered there was a set pattern. Animal had to be healthy, free of defect. The person bringing the offering placed his hand on the head of the animal as a sign that the animal was dying in his place. The offerer had to slaughter the animal near the altar of burnt offering in the courtyard.

The priest sprinkled some of the blood either on the altar of burnt offering or on the altar of incense inside the Holy place.

Depending on the kind of sacrifice, the priest burned all or part of the animal on the altar. Except for the burnt offering and certain forms of sin offering part of the animal could be eaten by the priest or the offerer or both

Five types of Sacrifices

Whole burnt offering

Leviticus 1

Major daily sacrifice

Purpose

to make the people right

Atonement of sin in general

Cereal offering

Leviticus 2

Fruits of the field

Expressing thanks for the produce of the land

Peace offering

Leviticus 3

Animal slain

Blood thrown against the alter

Fat and internal organs were burned

meat was eaten by the priest and the worshipers in an act of communion

Celebration type meal

Sin offering

Leviticus 4:1-5:13

Type of whole burnt offering

You could only offer sacrifices for unwitting sins

Sin has to be burnt outside of camp

Guilt offering

Leviticus 5:14-6:7

Involved an offering as well as restoration as a loss of sin

Holiness Code

Leviticus 17-26

Holiness Code Contains many ancient traditions grouped around the theme of Israel’s need to be a holy people, set apart and dedicated to the service of God

Leviticus 19:18 CSB

18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Holy Days

Leviticus 23 LEB

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘The festivals of Yahweh that you shall proclaim are holy assemblies; these are my appointed times. 3 “ ‘For six days work is to be done, and on the seventh day shall be a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy assembly; you shall not do any work; it shall be a Sabbath for Yahweh in all your dwellings. 4 “ ‘These are Yahweh’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you shall proclaim at their appointed time. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month at the evening is Yahweh’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is Yahweh’s Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day there shall be a holy assembly for you; you shall not do any regular work. 8 And you shall present an offering for Yahweh made by fire for seven days; on the seventh day there shall be a holy assembly; you shall not do any regular work.’ ” 9 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘When you come to the land that I am about to give to you and you reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruit of your harvest to the priest. 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh for your acceptance; the priest shall wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 And on the day of your waving the sheaf you shall offer a yearling male lamb without defect as a burnt offering to Yahweh. 13 And its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of finely milled flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire for Yahweh, an appeasing fragrance; and its libation shall be a fourth of a hin of wine. 14 And you shall not eat bread or roasted grain or ripe grain until this very same day, until you present your God’s offering. This must be a lasting statute for your generations in all your dwellings. 15 “ ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day of your bringing the wave offering’s sheaf—there shall be seven full weeks. 16 Until the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days; then you shall present a new grain offering for Yahweh. 17 You shall bring from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread made with two-tenths of an ephah of finely milled flour; they must be baked with leaven—the firstfruits belonging to Yahweh. 18 And, in addition to the bread, you shall present seven yearling male lambs without defects and one young bull and two rams—they shall be a burnt offering for Yahweh with their grain offering and their libations, an offering made by fire, an appeasing fragrance for Yahweh. 19 And you shall offer one he-goat as a sin offering and two yearling male lambs as a sacrifice of fellowship offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Yahweh; in addition to the two male lambs, they shall be holy for Yahweh for the priest. 21 And you shall make a proclamation on this very same day; it shall be a holy assembly for you; you shall not do any regular work; this is a lasting statute in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you must not finish the edge of your field at your reaping, and you must not glean the remnants of your harvest—you shall leave them behind for the needy and for the alien; I am Yahweh your God.’ ” 23 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a rest period, a remembrance of the trumpet blast, a holy assembly. 25 You must not do any regular work, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh.’ ” 26 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Surely the Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of the seventh month; it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall deny yourselves, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 28 And you must not do any regular work on this very same day, because it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. 29 If there is any person who does not deny himself on this very same day, then he shall be cut off from his people. 30 As for any person who does any work on this very same day, I will exterminate that person from the midst of his people. 31 You must not do any work; it is a lasting statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening—from evening to evening you must observe your extraordinary Sabbath.” 33 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, this shall be the Feast of Booths for seven days for Yahweh. 35 On the first day there shall be a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work. 36 For seven days you must present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh; it is a celebration; you must not do any regular work. 37 “ ‘These are Yahweh’s festivals, which you must proclaim, holy assemblies to present an offering made by fire to Yahweh—burnt offering and grain offering, sacrifice and libations, each on its proper day— 38 besides Yahweh’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides your vows and besides all your freewill offerings that you give to Yahweh. 39 “ ‘Surely on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at your gathering the land’s produce, you shall hold Yahweh’s festival for seven days; on the first day there shall be a rest period and on the eighth day a rest period. 40 And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the first fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees and branches of a leafy tree and of a brook’s poplar trees, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. 41 And you must hold it as a festival for Yahweh for seven days in the year; it shall be a lasting statute throughout your generations; in the seventh month you must hold it. 42 You must live in the booths for seven days; all the natives in Israel must live in the booths, 43 so that your generations shall know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them from the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.’ ” 44 Thus Moses announced to the Israelites Yahweh’s appointed times.

Holiday Calendar

List of the six holidays and holy days:

Sabbath

Rest

celebrated weekly

Passover – Unleavened bread and first fruits

Reminder of the deliverance from Egypt

Pentecost – Feast of weeks

celebrated the grain harvest and came fifty days after Passover

Pentecost

Greek

“fiftieth”

(Acts 2)

Rosh Hashannah – Feast of Trumpets

New Year

“Head of the year”

Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement

Day when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle to make atonement for the sins of the people

Succoth – Feast of Tabernacles

Remind them of the deliverance out of Egypt

Sabbath Year

Leviticus 25 LEB

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land that I am about to give to you, then the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and you shall gather its yield. 4 But in the seventh year it shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath for Yahweh; you must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard. 5 You must not reap your harvest’s aftergrowth, and you must not harvest the grapes of your unpruned vines—it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6 And a Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you: for you and for your slave and for your slave woman and for your hired worker and for your temporary residents who are dwelling as aliens with you; 7 and all its yield shall be for your domestic animal and for the wild animal, which are in your land to eat. 8 “ ‘And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and they shall be for you time periods of seven Sabbaths of years: forty-nine years. 9 And you shall cause a loud horn blast to be heard on the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall cause a ram’s horn to be heard in all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It is a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return—everyone to his property and everyone to his clan. 11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee; you must not sow and you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines. 12 Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You must eat its produce from the field. 13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And when you sell something to your fellow citizen or you buy from your neighbor’s hand, you must not oppress one another. 15 You must buy from your fellow citizen according to the number of years after the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to the number of years of yield. 16 You must increase its price according to a greater number of years, but you must decrease its price according to a lesser number of years, because he is selling its yields to you. 17 And you must not oppress one another, but you shall revere your God, because I am Yahweh, your God. 18 “ ‘And you shall do my statutes, and you must keep my regulations, and you shall do them, so that you shall live securely on the land. 19 And the land shall give its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live securely on it. 20 And if you should say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and we do not gather its yield?” 21 then I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will make the yield for three years. 22 And you will sow in the eighth year, and you shall eat from the old yield; until the ninth year, until the coming of its yield, you shall eat the old yield. 23 “ ‘But the land must not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is mine, because you are aliens and temporary residents with me. 24 And in all your property’s land you must provide redemption for the land. 25 “ ‘When your brother becomes poor and he sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come, and he shall redeem the thing sold by his brother. 26 But if a man does not have a redeemer, then he prospers and he finds enough for his redemption, 27 then he shall calculate the years of its selling, and he shall refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his property. 28 But if his hand does not find enough to refund to him, then what he has sold shall be in the buyer’s hand until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall go out of the buyer’s hand in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his property. 29 “ ‘And if a man sells a residential house in a walled city, then it shall be his redemption until completing a year after his selling; its redemption shall last a year. 30 But if it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, then the house that is in the walled city shall belong to the buyer in perpetuity throughout his generations; it shall not go out of the buyer’s hand in the Jubilee. 31 However, village houses that have no surrounding wall shall be considered open country; there is redemption for it, and in the Jubilee it shall go out of the buyer’s hand. 32 “ ‘As for the cities of the Levites, that is, the houses in their property’s cities, it shall be a lasting redemption for the Levites. 33 And whatever anyone redeems from the Levites then must go out of the buyer’s hand in the Jubilee, including a house’s selling in his city’s property, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 34 But a field of their cities’ pastureland must not be sold, because it is their property for all time. 35 “ ‘And if your countryman becomes poor and if he becomes dependent on you, then you shall support him like an alien and like a temporary resident, and he shall live with you. 36 You must not take interest or usury from him, but you shall revere your God, and your countryman shall live with you. 37 You must not give your money to him with interest or give your food for profit. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to be as God for you. 39 “ ‘And if your countryman who is with you becomes poor, and he is sold to you, you shall not treat him as a slave. 40 He shall be with you like a hired worker, like a temporary resident; he shall work with you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 And he and his sons with him shall go out from you, and he shall return to his clan, and to the property of his ancestors he shall return. 42 Because they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold as a slave. 43 You shall not rule over him with ruthlessness, but you shall revere your God. 44 “ ‘As for your slave and your slave woman who are yours, from the nations that are all around you, from them you may buy a slave or a slave woman. 45 And you may buy also from the children of the temporary residents who are dwelling with you as aliens and from their clan who are with you, who have children in your land; indeed, they may be as property for you. 46 And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to take possession of as property for all time—you may let them work. But as for your countrymen, the Israelites, you shall not rule with ruthlessness over one another. 47 “ ‘And if the alien or the temporary resident who are with you prosper, but your countryman who is with him becomes poor and he is sold to an alien, a temporary resident who is with you, or to a descendant of an alien’s clan, 48 after he is sold redemption shall be for him; one of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50 And he shall calculate with his buyer from the year of his selling himself until the Jubilee; and the value of his selling shall be according to the number of years—it shall be with him like a hired worker’s days. 51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them he shall restore his redemption in proportion to his purchase price. 52 And if there are a few years left until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall calculate for himself; he shall restore his redemption according to the number of his years. 53 He shall be with him as a yearly hired worker; he shall not rule over him with ruthlessness in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed by any of these ways, then he and his sons with him shall go out in the Year of Jubilee. 55 Indeed, the Israelites are servants for me; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

Sabbath Year - Every 7 years you are not to plant

Year of Jubilee - Every 7th 7th so every 50th year. All debts are paid off if one could and forgiven.