Thoughts on the Levitical Laws

We'll be looking more at the Day of Atonement (ch16) and Israel's Festival Year (ch23) at the Biblical Thinking Forum Sessions in March and April respectively, so will not repeat myself here.

We must be wary not to fall into the trap of thinking that all these laws are drawn up by God for Israel on the basis that they are the best or most efficient way to do life. This often true, but not always. There's nothing wrong with eating pork, and it's no worse/better for you than lamb (so long as you cook it properly).

The point of these laws was that God wanted to keep before the eyes of his people 1) their calling to be his treasured possession and to be separate and distinct from all the other nations on the earth. and 2) to show them what Messiah would do when he came to redeem the whole creation.

Here are some thoughts on the Levitical Laws (mostly from James Jordan) for you to have a chew on:

Bad Priests & Blasphemers

Whilst trying to slash our way through the legal jungle that is Leviticus, we come across two “clearings” that give our shoulders a bit of relief – kind of. I say kind of, because whilst the death of Aaron’s sons (ch 10) and the stoning of the blasphemer (ch24) are hardly palatable to our 21 cent Western mindset, they are more interesting and easier for us to think about than the lists of laws thus far.

So what do we make of these two incidents? Do we go with the pop psychology view that says God is like a Col. Kaddafi, unpredictably destroying others as a way of covering up his own acute sense of inadequacy? Or is there more going on here?

Drawing Near Through Christ

David & Mephibosheth

Observations on Leviticus 1-4

Chronologically, Leviticus appears to start before the end of Exodus, because the Tent of Meeting is still in operation and the Tabernacle has not been set up.

God's people, once a family, is now a nation and so there is specialisation of roles (judges and priests) amongst the people to help make things clear and enable them to run more smoothly and efficiently. Leviticus is the book that enables that transition.