Leviticus

Here we are in a brand new book of the Bible. It has always been a hard book for me to study. I do not know why that is, perhaps it is because it is not in the same story format as Genesis and Exodus. Let's start with an outline of chapter one.

v1 Burnt offerings
v3 Of the herd
v10 of the flocks
v14 of the fowls

Leviticus 1:1-4 "And the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him."

I picture the Lord in the tabernacle as a schoolmaster instructing the children of Israel. He is very precise.

This chapter is about the burnt offering. One phrase jumped out at me in v3 "...of his own voluntary will..." The Lord does not force himself on anyone. He understands that man has a sinful nature and here we find a way to atone for that sin and to be clean before God.

Notice the last part of the last verse "...it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord."

Now I'd like to give what I think is the key verse of Leviticus. It is found in chapter 17.
verse 11"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

I like to think of this passage in Hebrews as a companion verse to the one just above.
Hebrews 9:12,14,15 "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

So, we begin a detailed description of the offerings and sacrifices at the tabernacle. We should keep in mind that these are the first students of this class. All this is so we will understand the sacrifice of Christ when it comes about some time later in our study. It is our schoolmaster as was said very well in the following passage.

Galations 3:24,25 "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

The children of Israel are too many to be kept in line by a family hiearchy. They cannot just yell out the door of the tent and gather them together to tell them the rules of the day, everyday. They are now many thousands, I expect, we could look that up. So, there are laws being given them to live by, they are taught the law and know when they wake up and lay down at night exactly what they are suppose to do. A large part of the law points to the new testament where the law of God is put into believers hearts.

Psalm 119:4 "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently."