What is the book of Leviticus all about? 

“Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)


The third book in the Bible is Leviticus. It is a collection of ceremonial, civic and ethical laws for God’s people. The classic gag is that Leviticus is where most well-intentioned “Bible-in-a-year” plans go to die! After the narrative interest of Genesis and the glorious miracles of Exodus, Leviticus might feel like the Scriptural equivalent of a cold shower. But it is a necessary part of the Bible that shows us vitally important truths about who God is, and who we are, and how we can (and should) relate to Him.

We could summarise Genesis by saying that it answers the question of how God will keep His promises to Abraham and his descendants. Exodus then continues that answer, particularly tackling how God will rescue His people from slavery and bring them into the freedom of relationship with Him. And then Leviticus comes along and answers an even more pressing question: how can a ragtag group of flawed, sinful humans approach a holy, perfect God?
 

What do we need to know to read Leviticus?

Leviticus is structured in a chiasm (with paired sections at the beginning and end, then another pair after the beginning and before the end, and so on, right towards the middle of the book in a > shape):

• The first and last chunks (chapters 1-7 and 23-27) deal with the rituals that will shape the people’s relationship with God
• The second and sixth chunks (chapters 8-10 and 21-22) detail how God will form a group of priests to mediate between Him and His people, and how He will expect them to act
• The third and fifth sections (chapters 11-15 and 18-20) are packed with laws about purity, both ritual and ethical, that will mark God’s people out as set apart for Him
• The climactic middle section (chapters 16-17) are all about the annual Day of Atonement, the most important ritual, and the basis on which a holy God and a sinful people could be together

What do you notice from the above? Here are a few things to see:
 

First, a significant portion of the book is about sacrifices.

We might have the idea in our heads that most of Leviticus is weird, esoteric laws (like prohibitions on eating shellfish in 11:9=12 and wearing garments made out of a mixture of different fabrics in 19:19). But actually these laws play “second fiddle” to the sacrificial system that Leviticus outlines. There are sacrifices for individuals and sacrifices for the whole nation; there are sacrifices that celebrate God’s goodness and sacrifices that mourn our sin. In fact, the latter is probably more common! Before we even get to the laws on purity, we have chapter after chapter detailing how God will allow people to come back to Him after breaking those laws. This is significant, as we are often tempted to think that it was the other way round: that God gave His people laws, and then had to add the sacrificial system as an afterthought when He saw how rubbish we were at keeping them! No – the Old Testament law is first and foremost a reminder that we can’t achieve righteousness in our own strength (remember Galatians 2:16 and 3:10-14).
 

Second, the book shows the need to approach God on His terms.

Leviticus spends a great deal of time detailing how the priests are meant to fulfil their roles as mediators between God and the people. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu are held up as an object lesson on how dangerous it is to try and relate to God on our own terms rather than His (see 10:1-3). Whatever else we know about God, we must not miss His unimpeachable holiness: He is perfect in all that He does, and so He stands as the benchmark of rightness. If we disagree with God, we’re the ones in the wrong!
This is a marked difference between God’s people and the surrounding culture today, just as it was in the days of Moses. The book of Leviticus reminds us that we are not at liberty to decide how to live without reference to God and His Lordship. The book of Leviticus reminds us who is in charge(!): God does not exist simply to bless us and our chosen lifestyle; rather, we exist to glorify Him.
 

Third, the book shows our need for Jesus.

So much in Leviticus points forward to the coming of Jesus. The sections dealing with the sacrificial system remind us that ultimately we need Jesus’ perfect, once-for-all sacrifice (see Hebrews 10:11-14). The sections dealing with the priesthood remind us that ultimately we need not flawed human mediators but a perfect High Priest (see Hebrews 7:26-28). The sections dealing with purity laws remind us of our impurity, and how much we need cleansing by the only truly pure Man ever to have walked the earth (see Hebrews 9:13-14). And the section dealing with the elaborate ritual of the Day of Atonement points us forward to the great Day when Jesus fully and finally opened the way to God through His atoning sacrifice of Himself (see Romans 3:21-26) – with that incredible visual sign of His achievement as the Temple curtain (see Leviticus 16:2) was torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:38).

In short, the book of Leviticus will leave you praising God for the Lord Jesus’ perfectly pure life, His perfect priestly work for us, and His perfect once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. Praise the Lord!