 Themes: Place of Leviticus The Grace of Leviticus The Embrace of Leviticus - living daily life in the presence of the Holy One

 Israel is Redeemed  Tabernacle of Holy Glory constructed Sacrifices and Priests Instituted  Worshipping in the Beauty of Holiness – the reason for Leviticus Worship includes all of life

 Genesis 2 times  Exodus : ground is holy - mainly tabernacle and priesthood 45x  Leviticus: 150 times In a discussion about swarming things food…I am the Lord therefore sanctify yourselves and you be holy for I am holy. 11:44-45 Wonder why we are so quick to remove context?

 “It is self-evident…that the most important question that can possibly occupy the mind of man – how much like God can we be – how near God can we come on earth preparatory to our being perfectly like Him.” C. Booth Addresses on Holiness I

The Way to the Holy One The Way of Holiness Way to God Walk with God Removing DefilementUndefiling Behavior Curing UnholinessPreventing Unholiness PastFuture Offerings Priests Purity Atone People Priests Feasts Bless/Curse

“I take the Gospel to be aiming not at merely saving but restoring us. If it were merely to save me without restoring me, what would it do for me? As a moral agent, if the Gospel has failed to PUT ME RIGHT it will fail eternally to make me happy.” C. Booth Aggressive Christianity

1. Sacrifice 1-7 Worship 2. Priesthood 8-10 Mediators 3. Cleanness Daily Life 4. Atonement Holy Living 17-27

 Israel formed by the grace of the Holy One  His desire, purpose, offer and demand: Be holy as I am Holy!  The covenant covered all of life  An agreement that every aspect of life be brought under His definition of holiness  Called to learn, obey and show the difference bet. holy and unholy/clean and unclean (10:10-11)

 11:1-47Uncleanness from animals  12:1-8Uncleanness from childbirth  13:1-14:57 Uncleanness from “leprosy”  15:1-33Uncleanness from bodily discharges

 Nothing is Scripture is ‘dispensable’  The details are important to God “Scripture is not there for rules, it is there for your benefit.” Amy Reardon  Different world – ancient, before the Cross  Patience of God to train our rebellious hearts  Nothing in our lives is beyond the loving concern of the Holy One (even what may seem to us amoral or not ethically important) Cf. Peter and Vision in Joppa

 ‘clean’ gods benefit me – ‘unclean’ hurt me  Yahweh has to re-instruct the mind (400 yrs)  Nearly every animal and insect = gods  Every sexual act and birth = tied to magic  Drinking blood part of orgiastic worship  All created “mysteries” life, sex, death, food were perverted.  No focus on the moral whatsoever

 God speaks through Moses to Aaron: 11:1, 13:1, 14:33  Terms: profane, common, abomination, defile, sanctify and holy  Unclean = 100 times in these chapters Clean = 74 times in book

 We tend to seclude sin from rest of life  In OT sin is nearly a ‘thing’ it is so real: infects the spiritual, physical, material,relational Awareness of a deep impurity (heart) that produces every act of sin History, religion, life of Israel “Only a comprehensive sacrifice can cleanse”

 The Holy One meets His own need: Sacrifice Death requires a sacrifice Justice must have a satisfaction The Son takes His Own Judgment upon Himself  The Holy One meets our need: Covenant Only way to live - in total abandonment It is totally the Lord’s – we have no share in it

 Distinctive: prominence of blood – varying for offense and offender  Burning the carcass outside the camp  Emphasis – repentance for sins – but, mainly unwitting (unintentional)  But more, there is a need to purify the place where the Holy One can meet us and our sin  The focus is primarily on the blood on altars, veil, and even, mercy seat

 Main offering for all types of sin – restores by atonement and forgiveness.  Re-establishes relationship broken by sin  Place of Atonement, Yahweh’s dwelling place must be ‘sanctified’ by blood (12:8, 14:19, 15:31, 16:19) defilement dealt with or immediate death (cf. sons of Aaron) Burnt Offering = Atoned Sin Offering = Purified

 Distinctive: cleansing/ repentance with a stress on restitution present – so a specific kind of sin offering  Emphasizes penalties for ‘thoughtlessness’  Compensation for forgetting vows, tithes, making false promises.  Is 53 “He made himself an offering for sin!” He compensates for my sin

 We are devastated by sin! Every part of us is affected: body and spirit  Sin is horrendous, gory, decimating  In order to deal with it we must see what it produces and what it cost for us to be delivered from it.  The loss of life could only be remedied by the offering of life.  Solution must fully meet the Problem  Not one “theological” verse – just action

“ You can’t make a man clean by washing his shirt.”

 Burnt = PersonalSomeone dies for me  Cereal = PhysicalAll my things purely His  Purification = MedicalSomeone ‘disinfects’ me  Reparation = CommercialMy debt is paid Jn. 12:38; Rom. 10:16; Matt 8:17; I Pet. 2:22, 24-25; Zaccheus : repays “fourfold Matt 5:23-24 ‘first be reconciled, then offer gift’

 Like burnt and cereal it is an “aroma pleasing to the Lord” 3:5, 16  Unlike burnt: only part burned - (fat, kidneys, liver), part to priests, at end part eaten by worshippers as a communal meal in the tabernacle precincts probably a festive, covenant meal  Given as a person was led (7:12ff - 3 reasons)  For: praise, making vows and petitions

 Emphasis: shared fellowship  Shalem - peace, could also mean ‘complete’ and thus final offering or more probably, the “concluding sacrifice” which indicated the worshipper was totally pleasing to the Lord  Never mentioned in NT but ideas are there: Declaring God’s mercies Willingness to obey the law

 Sacrifices One True Sacrifice Five Facets of Nearness: He gives, provides, atones, accepts, On that basis (and no other) Burnt: Unreserved Gratitude Cereal: Ungrasping Stewardship Sin: Unlimited Substitution Guilt: Unimpeded Restoration Peace: Unhindered Communion

 Where we have been ‘stuck’ for 500 years  The Legal over the Familial/Transformational  The Positional AND the Real For AND In Us  Heb 9:9, 9:14, 10:2, 10:22, 13:18  Having our conscience purified requires an infusion of His nature an impartation of His character a continual dependence of mutual love

 Nadab and Abihu = “strange fire” 10:1-7 “He sends the fire, we don’t” A. Miller They produced something apart from grace  10:10-11 Told the priest’s purpose  10:12-20 Ithamar and Eleazar’s “unwitting disobedience  Volitional ‘rebellion’ and Mistake in judgment

 Inadvertent and Volitional  Unwilling and Willing  Unintentional and Intentional  High-Handed Sin (Num 15) – no sacrifice in the OT for that

 Way into the Presence of the Holy One  Living in His Presence  How to bring everything in life to Him  What it means to be actually holy  Daily Passionate Love for God  An Absolute, Complete and Abundant Salvation

 He tells us!  Only that which falls within clear categories can be sacrificed or eaten  Only that which is ‘fit’ or pure is acceptable  Crossing divine boundaries is forbidden  Preserving the purity of the natural order  Disorder symbolizes sin – de-creation is sin  (animals not clearly in species=unclean)

 HolyUnholy  HealthUnhealthy  PureImpure Almost all are non-moral  Diet (11)  Mystery of Birth (12)  Bodily infirmities (13) Skin diseases and disorders (14) Infections/fungus  Bodily discharges (15)

 15:31  Nearly all of these laws address normal and unavoidable events in life: childbirth, disease, emissions.  Allowing His holiness into all of my life heightens my awareness of anything that might be ‘diseased’ in my moral life

 “Into this hopeless reckoning comes Christ, the Reconciler, compensating for our inadequacy, building again our wasted reserves, repairs the moral damage, restores self-respect, adjusts life’s values to God…Never hold yourself cheap.”