Faith without religion.
Leviticus: Sacrifice, Priesthood, and Redemption
In a recent teaching session, we delved into the intricate layers of the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch, which is central to understanding the laws and regulations concerning the Levites and priests. The discussion began with an exploration of the term “priest” across different languages—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin—all of which denote someone who offers sacrifices. This concept of sacrifice, deeply rooted in ancient practices, was examined through the lens of biblical narratives, from Adam and Eve to the Levitical priesthood.
The session highlighted the notion that the sacrificial system, as detailed in Leviticus, was not an end in itself but a precursor to the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah. This perspective is supported by various scriptures, including passages from Hebrews, which emphasize that the sacrifices of old could not truly take away sins, pointing instead to the need for a more profound, spiritual offering.
We also touched upon the historical context of the priesthood, noting how it evolved from family patriarchs to the formalized Levitical system. The role of priests, their duties, and the significance of their consecration were discussed, alongside the broader implications of sacrifice and atonement.
The teaching concluded with a reflection on the spiritual transformation brought about by Christ’s sacrifice, which redefined the concept of priesthood. Today, all believers are seen as part of a “royal priesthood,” offering themselves as living sacrifices through acts of love and service.
As we prepare to explore Leviticus further, the focus will be on understanding its ceremonial laws and their symbolic meanings, which ultimately point to the redemptive work of Christ. This exploration invites us to consider how these ancient practices inform our spiritual journey today, emphasizing mercy, justice, and a humble walk with God.
Teaching Script:
WELCOME
PRAYER
SONG
SILENCE
LEVITICUS INTRODUCTION
May 12th 2024
THE Greek version of the TANAKH , called the SEPTUAGINT, and the Latin VULGATE version, both give the title of LEVITICUS to the third book of the Pentateuch, (meaning the first five books of the Tanakh) and the name has been retained in almost all the modern versions.
The book was called this because it generally addresses the laws and regulations of the Levites and priests in general that were of that tribe.
I want you to consider for a moment, the term priest used in the Apostolic writings and in the language of the Gospels.
The Hebrew for “priest” is kohen, in Greek its “hierus,” in Latin, “sacerdos”, and all of them mean, “one who offers sacrifices.”
After the fall it seems that every man was his own priest and presented his own sacrifices before God.
Interestingly, we do not have any record of God telling either Adam, Eve, Cain or Abel to do such a thing – they just do it – or seem to just do it, all the way out to Noah.
Some believe that the scripture gives some insight into the practice as we read in Genesis 3:21
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Note that in the face of their sin – while they were yet sinners – God stepped in and dressed them properly, even though they first attempted to first dress themselves by and through their own knowledge and through the use of fig leaves.
Also note that His disposition was not to kill them – this first couple but to provide and continue to care for them.
This says so so much – but I am not really sure what? He could have started all over, right? Created a better model? No, I don’t think so. The model He created was perfect, would get no better and acted in accordance to the best model configurations.
In and through Freewill.
If we are to view this act naturally, we can see that something had to die to protect them from their choice of clothing and this apparently was an animal or several of them and this appears to be the evidence of the first sacrifice for sin or for Adam and Eve who had sinned.
We can also assume that the clothes that God made for them were strong and effective in protecting them.
Fig leaves would never have done the job – just the flesh of an actual living creature. Herein is where their knowledge of Good and Evil was proven improper because in the face of their naked state, they remained ill-equipped to act and to protect themselves in the best way possible.
We still remain ill-equipped, in large part because we continue to see ourselves as wise and informed but are really just feeling our way through the dark, solving one problem through advancement only to create another problem along the way.
As a result of being removed from the Tree of Life, some believe that this first couple were witnesses to the sacrifice of these animal’s live and were possibly informed or at least indirectly shown the results of them eating the fruit – death – including death by the shedding of blood, which ironically will happen at the hands of their oldest son to their youngest once they leave the garden.
Also, this initial offering (along with the shed blood that accompanied it) followed by the actual death of once living creatures may have simply said to their minds now knowing good and evil that what they were seeing was the end result of sin, because the sacrifice was made in the face of sin which revealed their nakedness, and that they from that day forward, assumed that this was something that they should do – meaning, out from their own religious minds acquired in by eating the forbidden fruit.
Emblematic in God making coats of skins from another living creature to wrap themselves-in points to the notion that our righteousness or our righteous works we cloth ourselves in before God are filthy-rags and we remain in this condition unless we are clothed in the skin of His Son, meaning the righteousness of Christ which only comes by faith.
The writer of Hebrews wrote, speaking of Christ and His sacrifice
Hebrews 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
We note the protection for the first couple was the material flesh of animals but that we are protected and enter into the holiest spiritually through the veil which is the flesh of Christ.
Long story short, there is the chance that YAHAVAH instructed them to continue to offer sacrifice but it is not written.
Our brother Grady supposes that the notion to sacrifice things came by virtue of their own fallen religious imaginations, a by-product of eating from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and that fallen man continued to have this idea in their minds as proven by Abel, Noah and Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
The practice of offering sacrifice was seen when Abraham offered up a ram caught in the thicket, and he offered it up to YAHAVAH instead of Isaac and we then read about Jacob doing the same.
What is worthy of some thought is how few people today continue to have the idea that offering up bloody sacrifices to God (as a means to pacify Him or for their own perfections).
Interestingly, animal and human sacrifice was present in many non-Israelite cultures without any connection to YAHAVAH, so it certainly seems like there was a human drive on earth PRE-CHRIST that drove ancient cultures to the practice of sacrificing to God or the Gods.
Christian scholars leap to the conclusion that God Himself somehow or in someway instructed Cain, Abel, Noah and others pre-Law of Moses to take such action but this is a pure conjecture.
Did God take the fruit from eating of the tree of Life which caused human beings to try to appease Him through offerings and use it in the establishment of His Levitical Priesthood and their duties which are a type of the sacrifice of His Son?
Some say yes. But again, the Bible never says this. The first time YAHAVAH seems to actually author animal sacrifice is when the Spirit of Death was going to Passover the land, taking the lives of the firstborn.
But before this, the action seems to be in alignment with what all pagan nations and natural men and women did in the face of their respective gods.
So, where heads of households appeared to have served as the priest for each family (“Noah” Genesis 8:20, “Abraham” Genesis 12:7; 13:4 “Isaac” Genesis 26:25 “Jacob” Genesis 31:54 and Job 1:5) we are at the place now where God moved the priestly office to the Levites.
The name or title of “priest” is first applied to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18) who I maintain was a type or even the preincarnate Christos Himself.
Ever hear this one – Yeshua and Melchizedek walk into a bar and the bartender looks at them and says,
We don’t serve your type here and Melchizedek walked out?
Anyway, under the Levitical arrangements the office of the priesthood was limited to the tribe of Levi, and then to only one family of that tribe, the family of Aaron, as Levi had several sons.
Moses will provide a number of specific laws relative to them being qualified and these laws will be kept through their clothing and how they would be consecrated.
Their duties as priests were numerous and are detailed in
Exodus 27:20-21; 29:38-44;
Leviticus 6:12; 10:11; 24:8;
Numbers 10:1-10;
Deuteronomy 17:8-13; 33:10; and
Malachi 2:7.
Under the Law, these males (no females) from Levi represented the Living God and offered the various sacrifices prescribed in the law accordingly.
According to 1st Chronicles 24:7-18, at the time of King David, the priests were divided into twenty-four classes and these classes were apparently retained even after the Captivity (according to Ezra 2:36-39 and Nehemiah 7:39-42)
Additionally, the priests were not spread out all over the land but lived together in certain cities [a total of forty-eight with six of the forty-eight designed as “cities of refuge.)”
These cities of refuge were places where citizens could flee and stay if they were guilty or thought to be guilty of a crime for which the victim’s families who might be after them to exact justice.
There is some study involved to better understand them and we will get to it all when they are mentioned in the text later.
What fascinates me – to no end – is that just as the temple was a type for the temple above, and Jerusalem a type for the kingdom above, I can’t help but wonder if in the heavenly realm outside both the Kingdom and New Jerusalem if there are “cities” of refuge (in the spiritual realm) where recalcitrant or repentant killers can find refuge from the rightful law of the Dark to torment them but therein has no access?
Just a thought.
In addition to sacrifice made by family patriarch religious instructions in the Nation seems to have remained in the hands of the heads of families too, until they established synagogues which seem to have occurred after the Nations return from captivity.
In all of this we can see that what God intended in and through the Nation of Israel began with the ten-word ketubah covenant, which the Nation repeatedly broke over their history together.
This sent them to captivity, which when they came out they turned from being seen as Israel’s children but identified themselves as “Jews” from that point forward who created a synagogue system which might have taken the head of household leadership from individual fathers and centralized it in the synagogue.
When it comes to sacrifice, we must always remember God’s heart toward it, which must be considered in our understanding of it as Psalm 40:6 paradoxically says,
“Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.”
OR
Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to YAHAVAH: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
OR
Proverbs 21:3 To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to YAHAVAH than sacrifice.
OR
Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Or the most recognized passages from Micah 6:6-8 where we read
Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
The whole priestly system of the Jews was never meant to be the end-all, but a picture of the ultimate sacrificial offering made by the promised Messiah.
Like most things, the Nation got it all wrong.
The writer of Hebrews, in what appears to be his attempt to clear things up, wrote in Hebrews 10:10-12
Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
The entire book of Hebrews makes it clear that because of Yeshua there is no longer any sort of priesthood among men but all believers, male or female, who look to Him are “priests,” lacking all corporate material duties but are individually offering up themselves, subjectively, as living sacrifices, meaning of their will and ways by dying daily and walking with Him in new life.
Truly then, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, of a contrite heart, and of freewill offerings of love to all in His name while allowing Him to sanctify you so long as you live.
At his death the veil of the temple was rent in two, as was His flesh, now all are reconciled to the Living God and in and through His flesh are welcomed into the Holy Place above and here to do works of agape love selflessly, sacrificially and insufferably.
Because the world has been reconciled, we notice less and less of a societal inclination to offer up animal sacrifices. Most people would be repulsed by the idea, believer and not.
There is a victorious spirit of this age that is better than the age before but part of it remains the choice to enter in to relationship by acquiescing to fath.
Outside of the Gospels, Acts and Hebrews, which all speak to the former Nation of Priests that were still operational (to some extent in that day) the term “priest” is NEVER used in any liturgical sacerdotal officiating manner, and the term “priesthood” is only used twice by Peter in his first epistle where he concludes in his second use of it, saying,
1st Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
The fact of the matter remains – all true believers are now “kings and priests unto God.”
As priests we have free access into the holiest place of all and until we arrive after mortality we choose to offer up ourselves as living sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, along with the sacrifices of grateful service, faith and love to the world around us day after day.
With all of this being said lets now start to work through Leviticus and what is generally laid out therein.
I am going to do you an admitted disservice according to some by NOT going verse by verse for the simple reason – we don’t really need to focus on all of this today – in my opinion.
Read it all, by all means, and see what you derive from it all, but we are going to move swiftly to cover what I think should be highlighted.
Today the overall outline – next week highlights.
In Hebrew the first words of the Book of Leviticus mean, “and he called,”
Fittingly, the book contains an account of the ceremonies that “He called” the Nation to observed through the priests and include the specification on the offering of burnt-sacrifices; meat, peace, and sin-offerings; the consecration of priests, together with the institution of the three grand national festivals of the Nation –
the PASSOVER,
PENTECOST,
and TABERNACLES,
along with a variety of other ecclesiastical matters.
Truly, the book seems to contain little more than the history of what occured during the eight days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons.
Other scholars differ with this, like the Archbishop Usher who thinks it describes all the transactions of the whole month, from April 21 to May 21.
All conjecture. 8 days or 1 month. Whatever.
Because Paul describes the law as their schoolmaster, the whole sacrificial system was intended to point to the Lamb of God, who, as John the Baptist stated, “takes away the sin of the world.”
Without this purpose in mind the book is essentially meaningless in my opinion.
The principal events recorded in Leviticus might be first seen in the order of the chapters:
Having set up the tabernacle, as Exodus described in detail and the cloud of the Divine glory falling which was the symbol of the presence of God resting upon it; God called Moses out of this tabernacle, and delivered the laws and precepts which are contained in the first seven chapters.
In chapter 1 YAHAVAH prescribes every thing relative to the nature and quality of burnt offerings, and the ceremonies which should be observed, as well the person who would bring the sacrifice and the priest who would offer it.
In chapter 2 YAHAVAH describes the meat-offerings of fine flour with oil and frankincense; of cakes, and the oblations of first-fruits.
In chapter 3 YAHAVAH describes what are called “peace-offerings” along with the ceremonies to be used in such offerings and what should be consumed by fire.
Chapter four treats of the offerings made for what he calls, “sins of ignorance;” including offerings made for the sins of the priests, rulers, and even of the common people.
Chapter five treats the sin of him who, being adjured as a witness, conceals his knowledge of a fact along with the case of him who touched an unclean thing; of those who bind themselves by a vow or an oath; and of trespass-offerings in cases of sacrilege.
Chapter six speaks of the trespass-offerings for sins knowingly committed; and of the offerings for the priests, the parts which should be consumed, and the parts which should be considered as the priests’ portion.
And chapter seven contains a continuation of the same.
Chapter eight speaks to the consecration of Aaron and his sons; their sin-offering; burnt-offering; ram of consecration; and the time during which these solemn rites should happen.
After Aaron and his sons were consecrated, on the eighth day they were commanded to offer sin-offerings and burnt-offerings for themselves and for the people, which they accordingly did, and with Aaron and Moses having blessed the people, a fire came forth from before the Lord, and consumed the offering that was laid upon the altar is in the ninth Chapter.
Chapter ten speaks of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, having offered strange fire before the Lord, and are consumed; and the priests are forbidden the use of wine and all inebriating liquors which leads many to continue to prohibit strong drink in the lives of believers.
Chapter eleven speaks of clean and unclean beasts, fishes, birds, and reptiles.
Chapter twelve speaks to the purification of women after child-birth, and the offerings that should presented before the Lord.
Chapter Thirteen prescribes the manner of discerning leprosy in persons, garments, and houses.
Chapter Fourteen prescribes the sacrifices and ceremonies which should be offered by those who were cleansed from the leprosy.
Chapter fifteen speaks of certain uncleanliness in men and woman and about their purifications.
Chapter sixteen speaks of the solemn annual expiation to be made for the sins of the priest and of the people, of the goat and bullock for a sacrifice, and of the scape-goat; all which should be offered annually on the tenth day of the seventh month.
In Chapter seventeen the Israelites are commanded to offer all their sacrifices at the tabernacle; the eating of blood is prohibited here as also is the eating of the flesh of those animals which die of themselves and those that are torn by dogs.
Chapter Eighteen shows the different degrees within which marriages were not to be contracted and prohibits various acts of impurity.
Chapter Nineteen recapitulates a variety of laws which had been mentioned in Exodus but oddly adds several new ones.
Chapter Twenty prohibits the consecration of their children to Molech, forbids their consulting wizards and those which had familiar spirits, and also addresses a variety of incestuous and unnatural engagements.
Chapter Twenty-One, one of my favorites, describes different ordinances concerning the mourning and marriages of priests and prohibits those from the priestly office who have certain personal defects.
Chapter Twenty-Two treats those infirmities and uncleanliness which rendered the priests unfit to officiate in sacred things and lays down directions for the perfection of the sacrifices which should be offered to the Lord.
Chapter Twenty-Three treats of the Sabbath and most of the great annual festivals including the passover, pentecost, feast of trumpets, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles.
Chapter Twenty-three speaks about the oil for the lamps, and the shew-bread; the law concerning which had already been given in Exodus 25 and mentions the case of the person who blasphemed God, and his punishment which helps lay down the law in cases of blasphemy and murder; and recapitulates what is called, the lex talionis,” or law of “like for like,” which is described in Exodus 21.
Chapter twenty five recapitulates the law, first given in Exodus 22 especially relative to the Sabbatical year then prescribes the year of jubilee and then lays down a variety of statutes relative to mercy, kindness, benevolence, charity and the like.
Chapter Twenty-six prohibits idolatry, promises a great variety of blessings to the obedient, and threatens the disobedient with many and grievous curses.
Finally, Chapter twenty seven speaks to vows, of things devoted, and of the tithes which should be given for the service of the tabernacle.
There is no viable Chronological Table can be affixed to Leviticus but like we said, it was all given apparently in either eight days and no more than 30.
It is possible that everything we read happened in the order we read them but some suggest not.
We will begin to high-grade through the chapters next week and see where that gets up. Again, nothing exhaustive, just cursory before we pretty much just summarize the high points of Numbers.
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