Leviticus can be intimidating. Chances are, if you’ve tried to read through the Bible beginning with Genesis and ending in Revelation, you’ve noticed something different already in the third book, Leviticus. It’s not quite like the two previous books of Moses.
Genesis and Exodus are narrative in nature. They are history books filled with the stories of creation; the flood, God’s promises to Abraham and his decendents, the story of Israel and of Joseph, and, one the most well-known accounts, Israel’s rescue from their slavery to the Egyptian nation.
Leviticus, however, is different. It’s a book filled with commands, laws, and instructions. Leviticus makes distinctions between what is clean and unclean, holy and vile.
However, despite all the commands, laws, and instructions, Leviticus is not a guideline on how to please God. The book is not a how-to manual on how to work up enough holiness or how to secure religious cleanliness by following a set of laws.
Leviticus is about one thing. The same thing all of Scripture points to: the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Leviticus points to Christ through God’s divine service to his people.
Leviticus is the giving of the divine service. Since Leviticus is all about God’s divine service, it is all about the gifts Jesus brings to his people. The focus is not on the verbs of the people; what they bring to the table through their offerings and sacrifice. Leviticus has it’s focus on what God, through Christ, has done and freely gives. We do not bring sacrifices to please God, rather, the Lord pours out himself to us through the means of Word and sacrament.
Leviticus is an illustration of the work of Christ as our great High Priest. The hymn, In the Shattered Bliss of Eden by Stephen Starke beautifully ties the sacrifices we find in Leviticus with their fulfillment in Christ. “What these sacrifices promised from a God who sought to bless, Came at last a second Adam priest and King of Righteousness.”
The divine service today gives the same gifts Israel received through the liturgy appointed in Leviticus. The Lord gathers his people to forgive their sins, and crown them with the eternal life Jesus brings through Word and sacrament.
