I am intrigued by Leviticus. On the surface we have a long list of offerings and sacrifices which, read in the context of today, seem to have little relevance. The temple today is in ruins, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. However that does not mean Leviticus is irrelevant today. God’s word often has a deeper meaning below the surface.
In the first five chapters of Leviticus we find instructions for offerings. Much of it seems irrelevant today because there is no Temple so there are no sacrifices even if we needed to make them. Most of us don’t have access to livestock, raw crops and birds anyway.
Seeming irrelevance makes it easy to just skip over much of Leviticus. I would suggest reading it and writing down specific points. For example, why is there a sacrifice of peace offering? Why is it without blemish? Why is all fat the Lord’s?
Likewise, chapter 4 goes into sin offerings and we learn that there are personal and community sins, intentional and unintentional.
Is the point entirely about our sin, the fact we can’t meet God’s holy standard? Yes, at least in part.
Before we read about sin offerings there are offerings that are pleasing to the Lord, the burnt offerings of chapter 1. There is the offering for thanksgiving, the grain offering in chapter 2. And chapter 3’s peace offering giving thanks for blessings or seeking God’s blessing. In chapters 4 and 5 we read about sin offerings.
More to the point is that God is the source of all life and He wants to dwell among His people. However He is perfect and therefore Holy, and people are not. Below the surface reading of Leviticus, God tell us about Himself and, in the process, His standards and our need to meet those standards. God expects us to give thanks, He expects us to seek blessings and give thanks for them. He expects us to know when we sin and to ask His forgiveness.
We learn in these first five chapters of Leviticus that God is benevolent and full of mercy, if only we seek to have a relationship with Him. Yes, we are not holy and we fall short of God’s standard of holiness because our minds are not focused on God. Our minds wander off as we think about our own needs, wants and desires or our own solutions to life’s problems.
Our problems, of course, are caused by our sin. The sacrifices were to continue on and on because we are unable to become holy by ourselves, try as we might. The letter to the Hebrews says that “the law has but a shadow of the good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1) and goes on to say that the sacrifices would have to continue year after year because they were reminders, not a solution to our sin. The Messiah, when offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12).
The Messiah has made atonement for our sin. He is returning, soon, to make his enemies a footstool for his feet. He has, by a single offering, perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (verse 14).
Read Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26 with an eye toward God’s revelation about Himself and what our response ought to be toward Him and toward our fellow humans who love and worship God. The physical sacrificial systems may be laid waste, but the spiritual is still intact.