Bible Reading Challenge Week 5

Another week is done in our Bible Reading Challenge plan. Whenever I use a plan that goes straight through the Bible starting in the Old Testament, the part where I think it starts getting harder to maintain focus is Leviticus. It seems quite repetitive as you go through all instructions for sacrifices, and a bit gross when you go through how to handle all the different types of skin diseases or other bodily issues. It was nice last week that there was a break between finishing Exodus and starting Leviticus to read 1 & 2 Peter and a few Psalms. It is also nice to be reading a couple chapters of Hebrews each day, as it gives a great old vs new covenant perspective.

Week 5 Readings

Leviticus 1-20

How do a sinful people come before a perfectly holy God in worship without being consumed? This is more or less the entire point of Leviticus. The first seven chapters are the how-to guide for the different types of sacrifices and offerings to the Lord – instructing the people on what to bring and when to bring it, and the priests on how to conduct the sacrifice so that God is pleased, and that the priests are not struck down for profaning it.

Then in chapters 9 and 10, we see examples of sacrifices done correctly and incorrectly, and what the outcome of that looks like. Moses and Aaron conduct the sacrifices according to the instructions they were given and God sends fire from the glory cloud to consume the offering, and presumably is well pleased with it. Nadab and Abihu – two of Aaron’s sons who were also priests – decide to creative instead of following the specific instructions, and they offered “strange fire” that they mixed with an incense before the Lord. This profane offering again caused fire to come out from the glory cloud, but it consumed them. God is glorified both in His mercy and His wrath.

The end of chapter 20 has a great paragraph (verses 22-26) summarizing the reason for all the rules and regulations around sacrifice and being ceremonially clean when you come before God. The point is that God is separating them out from the nations, setting them apart, calling them to be holy just as God is holy. He is sending them into a nation full of unclean people that God will drive out from before them. But if they do not keep covenant with God, keeping “all my statutes and all my rules,” they will be cast out of the land of promise – reaping the curses of the covenant instead of the blessings.

Hebrews 1-10

Hebrews gives us a great opportunity to look back at the sacrificial system through the lenses of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. Chapter 1 shows Christ as better than the angels. In chapter 3, Jesus is the better Moses. In chapters 4 and 5, he is the great high priest, greater than Aaron’s line. And in Chapters 7 through 10, we see why Christ’s atoning sacrifice puts to an end the system we read all the details about in Leviticus.

The sacrificial system was never meant to be permanent – it had no ability to truly deal with sin. Christ is the better high priest – the king of righteousness and the king of peace – because He perfectly fulfills the requirements and does so once and intercedes forever. When He, the great High Priest, came offering the sacrifice of Himself, He did so not in the tabernacle or temple which was just a shadow, but before the actual throne of God. He also only had to offer this once. It was a perfect sacrifice, and unlike the shadows read of in Leviticus, it actually and completely dealt with our sin, removing it from us and cleansing us with His righteousness.

The take away from all this is in the end of chapter 10. We have “confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” We are now called, as truly forgiven members of Christ’s body, to “draw near” to God, to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,” and to “stir one another to love and good works.” We no longer have to live our entire lives wrapped around the question of whether or not we are unclean and need to be made clean (for a little while) in order to come to God. Christ has made all His children permanently clean through His death, resurrection, and ascension, and we can live accordingly. Thanks be to God!