Coming to Life: Leviticus

Welcome to Coming to Life, a one-year journey through God's Word. My name is Katie Hauck. In our last video, we covered the book of Exodus and talked about the amazing and miraculous deliverance of God's people from Egypt. Because that is a well-known story, we spent a little more time talking about the second half of the book and the theme of God's chosen people breaking His commandments, a theme we will continue to talk about in many of these videos. We ended with the incredibly specific details God gave the Israelites on how to build the tabernacle so that His presence could enter it and He could live among His people. The goal was to get the tabernacle just right so it could be filled with the Spirit of God. That was obviously successful because the book of Leviticus begins with God speaking to Moses from the tabernacle. As a reminder, Moses is the author of this book, just like he is all of the books of the Law, which include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And like the others, this was written to the Israelites. The Israelites are still at Mount Sinai during the events that take place in this book. The book is named after the tribe of Levi, or the Levites, who were the priests responsible for maintaining the tabernacle and holy artifacts, although in the original Hebrew language, the word used was vikra, which means, and He called, the first few words of the first sentence. Fun fact, this is the first book that Jewish children learn about in school. So basically, Exodus gives us the directions for building the tabernacle and Leviticus gives us the directions for entering it. God is desiring a relationship with His people, but they are full of sin and cannot come into His presence. No one can enter the tabernacle they just built when God is inside of it. This book is a detail of God's plan for reconciliation. God is holy and a person must be holy to come into His presence. Let's talk about what holy means. Holy means to be set apart, to be separate, to be different.

God calls us to be holy. He has set us apart. We are to live differently than the world. And the closer you want to get to God, the more holy you have to be. In those days, you have the world living their immoral lives out here, worshiping other gods. God calls the Israelites to be separate from them. I like to think of it like a pyramid, and the world is the ground, and the Israelites are that first step. And then He calls the priests to be a step above that. And then the tabernacle has to be a step above that, and God is at the top. You have higher standards the closer you get. There are different views on how to divide this book up, but the easiest is to think of the first half as a blueprint for worshiping a holy God, and the second half as a blueprint for living a holy life. It starts with the offering God expects. There are five offerings. The grain and fellowship offerings are a way to thank God for what He's done. The burnt, sin, and guilt offerings are a way for the people to apologize for what they have done. Then the book details how Aaron and his sons were ordained. Their role as priests were to serve the people on behalf of God, and to serve God on behalf of the people. Sadly, two of Aaron's sons learned the hard way that God's laws are not to be disregarded. God then gives more laws, these regarding how to be clean. He's not talking about being good or bad here. Being unclean is different than sinning. It was not a sin to be unclean, but it was a sin to come into God's presence while you were unclean. Next, the book details the Day of Atonement. This was a ritual the high priest had to perform once a year.

Its purpose was to cleanse the temple. He would take two goats. One would be sacrificed as a purification offering. The other would have the sins of the people symbolically placed on it, and it would be cast out into the wilderness. A picture of God's desire to remove sin and consequence from His people. A picture of God providing a substitute. Does this sound a little familiar? You probably thought that Leviticus wasn't that fun of a book to read, but it is amazing how many events foreshadow the coming of Jesus. Only when Jesus came, He was our perfect high priest, and He literally took our sins. Plus, His sacrifice was eternal, not one that needs to be done every year. This book goes on to explain how to live a holy life, how to be different. It tells what's allowed what is prohibited and what the punishments are for sin. Then it details the annual feasts. This is my favorite part, because each feast not only reminds the Israelites of their deliverance from bondage, but they also each point to the coming Messiah. God is just so cool. There are seven feasts. The first is called the Passover feast. You will remember reading about the night when the Israelites were in Egypt and the Lord required anyone who believed in him to sprinkle the blood of an innocent lamb on their doorposts. An angel of death brought a plague that took the lives of the firstborn,

but it passed over those with blood on their door. This feast reminds the Israelites of God's deliverance, but also points to Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose blood redeems us eternally. The second feast is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, which immediately followed the Passover. When the Israelites left Egypt, they did not have time to add leaven, which is just another word for yeast, to their bread. They are reminded of difficult times, yet the grace God showed them as he freed them and provided for them. Leaven in scripture often represents sin. Once leaven is added to bread, it cannot be removed. This is the same for sin. It cannot be removed. The unleavened bread points to Jesus, the one who was without sin, the only one who could remove our sins through his sacrifice. Immediately following this, on the third day was the third feast, the Feast of the Firstfruits. The purpose was for the Israelites to acknowledge the fertility of the land God was giving them. This points to another great gift God was going to give his people on the third day, the resurrection of Jesus. After this third day celebration, there was a break for 50 days,

at which time the Israelites were to celebrate the Feast of the Pentecost. This commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the 10 commandments to the Israelites. It also points to the day God gives the first believers the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. Then there is a four month break while the people are busy gathering their harvest. At the end of that break comes the fifth feast, the Feast of the Trumpets. This feast represents the trumpet call that the people heard as God was done giving the law. The break between feasts represents the time we are in now when we are supposed to be gathering a harvest of believers and that trumpet sound that will one day call us home. The sixth feast is a Day of Atonement feast. We talked about the Day of Atonement and how the Israelites had to make restitution for their sins. It's easy to see how this one points to Jesus. The final feast was the Feast of Tabernacles. It celebrated God's provision for the people as they wandered through the wilderness and how God came into the tabernacle to be in their presence. It clearly points to how the Holy Spirit resides within us and how God will return to be with his people for all of eternity. These feasts could be talked about for an hour each, but I hope that I was able to get you excited enough

about their symbolism that you go study it out for yourselves and see all of the incredible connections and foreshadows. The book of Leviticus ends with a call to faithfulness. This is the same call we have today. God has set us apart. We have received his forgiveness, though we didn't deserve it. And we show him our gratitude by living differently than the rest of the world. This book shows us God's deep desire for a relationship with us, but reminds us that we are not holy enough to come into his presence without a sacrifice. Jesus made the perfect sacrifice for us. And when we accept the fact that he died on the cross and took our punishment, then God sees us as holy when he looks at us. This is an amazing book filled with prophecy about the future. I hope that the information shared today helps you grasp how interesting the Bible is so you develop a passion for reading it. I pray that as you dig into scripture and go through your workbook, God speaks to you in exciting new ways and your spirit begins coming to life. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless.

God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless.