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I am hearing from many corners that the instructions and details set out in Exodus and Leviticus seem a bit pointless and that the content is boring. Yes, the instructions seem very repetitive and monotonous – I totally agree – but we do get a picture of what the Holiness of God is like, and that when He says, “Do it my way”, we had better listen.
I think that there is so little teaching these days from the Pentateuch about the great truths of the foundations of Christianity because people are not sure if they believe unequivocally the account of creation and of the introduction of sin and of the flood and of Babel and of the reason for the existence of Israel. A result of not dealng with the first five books of the Bible is that we then miss getting the whole picture of the Holiness of God and the demands of having our sin dealt with before we can come into His presence.
One thing I learn in Exodus is that God cares enough about our well-being to give us laws that govern our conduct toward him, and our conduct toward each other. He gave Moses such very specific commands about how to build the tabernacle and the things in it, then he filled a man with the Holy Spirit to do the work, and then the people did everything “just as the Lord had commanded Moses”. If you look at the last few chapters of Exodus you will see that phrase used over and over again. Moses didn’t record that God had given him the reasons for the instructions; it just says that he did everything as God had commanded him to do. Then, and only then, in Ex. 40:34, did the glory of the Lord fill the tabernacle. My understanding is that the tabernacle that Moses built and the temple that Solomon later built are patterns of God’s throne in heaven, and that every piece of furniture in the tabernacle pointed to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What I take away from Leviticus is a picture of the holiness of God and the need for perfection and atonement (paying the price for sin). There are several words that are used over and over again, and if you can get a pen and mark them, and note what you learn about each one, it might be helpful. They are:
-the Lord spoke to Moses saying; -tabernacle; -sacrifice (offering); -sin (iniquity); -blood; -holy; -covenant; -fat; -fire; -oil; -incense; -atonement
In Leviticus we come face to face with sin and its awful ramifications. God created man perfect in the Garden of Eden, and gave him the admonition that if he disobeyed he would surely die. Death never ends, it never says, “enough already; the price has been paid.” Death is forever. Life is in the blood, and in order for the penalty for sin to be stared down, there must be death, life has to be given up and blood must be shed. There is no reconciliation with God unless blood is shed and the penalty for sin is paid. Therefore, God spelled out all the sacrifices (death) which must be made by a perfect animal and a holy, sanctified priest and He gave very specific instructions about what part of the sacrifices had to be burned, and what had to be eaten by the priests. Because God is perfect and Holy, things had to be done exactly as He said. There can not be the least imperfection or uncleanness because only that which is perfect can come before God. And God repeats Himself over and over again so that there can be no doubt in our minds about how critical each of the instructions is.
And of course all of this points to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice. After his death, God can say “enough already” when we accept him as our sacrifice. The danger is that we can become very casual about accepting the Grace extended to mankind after the cross, and not really understand what this cost the triune God.
Though this all seems about details, all through Scripture God makes it so clear that what He was truly interested in was the attitude of a person’s heart. When a person under the Old Covenant brought a sacrifice, God wanted to know if that person cared enough about God to do things exactly as He said. Under the New Covenant, God wants to know if we value Jesus’ perfect sacrifice enough to do exactly as the Holy Spirit bids us.
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