The Importance of Leviticus
Leviticus: Holy as Yahweh is Holy • Sermon • Submitted
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Exodus 33:1–7 (ESV)
The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
1 “And Yahweh said to Moses, “Go up from this place - You and the people whom YOU have brought up from the land of Egypt - to the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob saying, ‘To your seed I will give it.’
2 I will send before you an angel, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
3 To a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up in the midst of you for you are a stiff-necked people.”
4 And when the people heard this disastrous word they mourned and no man put on his ornaments
5 For Yahweh had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I went up in the midst of you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’”
6 Thus, the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb.
7 And Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, at a great distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And when anyone who sought Yahweh would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
Introduction
After finishing First Thessalonians, I spent a great deal of time and prayer seeking for the next book to preach from. God led me to Leviticus, and I approach this with great fear and trepidation. Leviticus where Bible reading plans go to die. Leviticus a book with no poetry and barely any narrative. Fortunately, I don’t preach every week, so we will have long interludes between sermons. I do believe, however, that this book is an important one for us to study as 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” reminds us. In his commentary on this book, Andrew Bonar writes, “The Gospel of the grace of God, with all that follows in its train, may be found in Leviticus.” Indeed, one might call this book the Gospel According to Moses. How is this so? It is present through what theologians call “types.” Types are anticipations of things to come - shadows of the full substance that will be realized. Leviticus is filled with types of Christ, His redemptive work, and even the promise of His return.
This sermon will be unusual for a number of reasons. One, I normally preach expository sermons, and I cannot call this sermon expository. It better called a textual sermon in which several key elements of this text will help understand the place of Leviticus in Scripture and its thematic importance. Two, for a sermon that introduces Leviticus, it is unusual in that I will not directly quote or explore Leviticus. Rather, the emphasis is to see the role of Leviticus plays in Scripture and its main points. Our passage gives us relevant context. Following the incident with the Golden Calf, God speaks to Moses regarding His dwelling among them. This sets the background for the need for Leviticus
I. Two Problems That Leviticus Must Solve
Leviticus presents two problems that must be solved and both relate to the function of the Tabernacle. On one hand, the Tabernacle was to function as the dwelling place of God in the midst of His people. This was promised by God just a few chapters earlier.
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
God would dwell in the midst in the sanctuary. He gave Moses clear and intricate designs for this, and Hebrews 9:23 tells us that these were copies of the heavenly tabernacle. This would be how God would dwell in the midst of His people in a partial imitation of how He had done so in Eden. This dwelling would show that Israel was indeed His people and that He was indeed their God. What other nation had enjoyed this intimacy with their Creator since the Fall?
Exodus 29:45–46 (ESV)
I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
However, in our passage God refuses to go up in the midst of the people, and instead, He resides at a great distance from the people. At the end of Exodus when the Tabernacle is finally set up in replacement to this temporary tent of meeting, it is implicit that it is still outside the camp since nothing had been changed since then. This is a problem left open by Exodus. However, in the book of Numbers, this had changed.
“The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
The second problem that Leviticus must address is the function of the Tabernacle as the tent of meeting. This too had been promised previously.
There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
Here God promises to meet with Moses specifically, but He also promises to meet with all Israel in the tent of meeting.
It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory.
However, the conclusion to the Book of Exodus further shows that this is not the case.
And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Not even Moses can enter the tent under these circumstances. However, once again, in Numbers we see this reversed.
And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.
What happens between these concluding events of Exodus and the introductory events of Numbers? The book of Leviticus. Leviticus must account for the difference in these changes.
II. The Underlying Problems that Leviticus Must Solve
However, these two differences are merely the external representation of a much deeper problem. Why is it that God cannot dwell in their midst nor can He meet with His people? Our primary passage tells us: Yahweh is Holy, and the people are sinful. Unless something changes, His wrath will consume them.
Only shortly after our passage, God describes part of what His holy character encompasses.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
This passage shows forth the wonderful mercy of God, but it leaves us with something that should make our hearts drop. He will by no means clear the guilty.
These are the fundamental problems that must be dealt with, and these are the fundamental problems of humanity. God cannot become less holy nor more tolerant of sin, and in truth, such a thing would be terrifying to contemplate. No, instead, the people must face two changes: their sin must be dealt with, and they must become holy. The guilty must be made innocent, and more than that, they must reflect the character of their God.
III. How Leviticus Solves These Problems
Leviticus begins to help us to understand the solution to these problems. However, it being a part of the Old Covenant, it does not deal with it directly but rather points to that which does. Leviticus like much of the Old Testament is filled with what theologians call “types.” Types are anticipations of something greater that will come that will do in whole what the type only does in part. They are a sign that points to a greater thing signified.
When we look at Leviticus, it may be hard to see these things, but they point to their realization in the New Covenant. The guilt of sin must be dealt with - the guilty made innocent. To do this, the guilt must be transferred to a spotless substitute who will bear the penalty in place of the guilty. In Leviticus this is typified by sacrifices. A spotless intermediary must offer the sacrifice on behalf of the guilty. In Leviticus, this is typified by the priesthood. The people must learn to distinguish between the clean and unclean, the holy and the common. They must be made holy through the seasons and festivals that sanctify them by fellowship with the Lord their God.
I’ve begun to realize that the greatest commentary on Leviticus is the Book of Hebrews. Regarding these types it says,
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Here is how Leviticus solves the problem posed by Exodus: it points us to the perfect salvific work of Jesus Christ, who is both sacrifice and priest. It is He who writes upon the hearts of those whom He is sanctifying the principles and precepts by which we may be made holy.
Hebrews 8:10–11 (ESV)
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
Perhaps more clearly than any Old Testament book, Leviticus points gloriously and unequivocally to Christ and His glorious work of redemption. By what then were the saints of the Old Covenant redeemed? Was it by the sacrificial system laid out in Leviticus? No, rather they were saved by faith in what it pointed towards.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Instead, in Christ they were counted righteous and made holy.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Application
Now, you may be thinking, “That’s great. Very interesting. How does this apply to me today?” That’s an excellent question. You see, the problems that the Israelites faced both superficially and under the surface are the same problems that we face today. We long for God to make His dwelling among us, and we long for Him to meet with us - to have real communion and fellowship with our Creator. What hinders this? The stain of sin and the lack of holiness. To deal with the stain of sin requires a perfect sacrifice and perfect high priest. In Jesus Christ, you will find both. In Him, the guilt of sin is dealt with once for all as the one perfect sacrifice. In Him, the that same sacrifice is presented to God on behalf on His people to propitiate the wrath of God. Notice, however, the wording - in Him!
Apart from union with Christ, you and I stand stained with guilt without a perfect sacrifice and without a mediator between us and God. That His wrath has not already consumed us is a picture of patience and long-suffering of God. Apart from being covered by the sacrifice of Christ and under His priestly mediation, God’s wrath will consume us for we are like Israel a stiff-necked people. How may we be saved from the wrath to come? In Christ alone, whom we receive by faith alone. We trust in the merit of His sacrifice and His mediation realizing our lack of righteousness and our guilt. We must know that no amount of outward conformity to God’s Law, no good work, will save us, because from our own hearts comes the uncleanness that pollutes the totality of our being. We must trust in Him alone. Christ has kept the Law on the behalf of His people, Christ has borne the penalty for sin, Christ sits at the right hand of the Father having discharged His priestly duties and intercedes for His people. By faith take hold of Him and know that in Him, your sins are cleansed, taken away from you. He has borne the penalty for your sin. I call upon you today, trust in Him!
However, even for those of us who know Christ we may sense the lack God’s presence in our lives. Nonetheless, we must understand that He does dwell in our midst. On one hand, individual believers are called the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,” On the other hand, the church as a body is described as the temple,
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The reason for this is also tied to union with Christ. As the Head of the Church with whom we are united and as the Cornerstone upon whom we rest, we are united to Jesus who is perfect expression of God’s dwelling with us. John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When God seems distant, we must remember that if we are in Christ, He dwells with us. His glory is revealed to us through the Son. Sin may still hinder us, and our lack holiness will interfere with our communion with God. As the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “What is man’s chief end? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” We will never by fully fulfilled if we do not glorify God and enjoy His presence. In our busy lives of today, we take every care for our physical condition but we don’t care for our spiritual condition. We gulp down a little spiritual sustenance once in a while when we could be feasting on the riches that are lavished upon us in Jesus Christ. This is why the book of Leviticus is so important for us. It points to Christ under the Old Covenant and illustrates His redemptive work, but it also shows the path of holiness in which we may delight in our God and commune with Him as His people.
One day, not only with the penalty for sin be dealt with, but also all of the effects of sin will be erased. God promises to make New Heavens and a New Earth where we will dwell in perfect fellowship with Him. There will be no sting of sin in that age to come. There will be no lack of holiness. In the meantime, we are students in the School of holiness and Christ is our schoolmaster and His Word is our guide. On that day, though, God will dwell in the fullness of His glory in the midst of His people.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.