Dr. Peter Lee reminds us that while the book can be challenging, it is given for our good. By reading patiently, alongside Hebrews, and with Christ in view, we begin to see how its themes of sacrifice, cleansing, and holiness are fulfilled in him and help us grow in communion with God.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
How do we read Leviticus devotionally?
How do we read Leviticus devotionally? That really is a good question. And it’s one that has stumped God’s people for a real long time. I mean, people who read the Bible and try to read it throughout the year, they’ll get through Genesis, they’ll power through Exodus, they get to Leviticus, and they just sort of stop. And you know what? I think it’s okay. I don’t think we should pretend it’s not easy to do. It’s hard, and I get that. There are a couple of thoughts I have here that might be helpful for people to read Leviticus devotionally. First, I think I’d encourage them to read it consistently. Don’t give up, and don’t expect to understand the whole book in one reading. You know, be patient with yourself and allow yourself to read it a little bit. Go through it as best as you can, and then maybe come back to it the following year. But just be patient and just be consistent. The other thing I think I would encourage is to read it canonically. The book of Leviticus and the New Testament, particularly the book of Hebrews, have such a nice connection together. Read it with the book of Hebrews, which actually is going to enlighten a lot of the images and themes that you will see in the book of Leviticus. A third way that I’d encourage people to read Leviticus devotionally is to read it Christologically. It is all about Jesus Christ. If you think about the way that it’s the major themes in Leviticus, you can’t help but to think of Jesus. Chapters 1 through 7 outline the sacrifices. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. Chapters 8 through 10 are now the installation and the inauguration of the Levitical priesthood. But Jesus is that great high priest, a greater priest actually, than what you read about there. In chapters 11 through 16, it is all about how someone or something that is unclean becomes clean. It’s celebrated at the end of that section with Leviticus, chapter 16, the great celebration of the day of atonement. Jesus is the fulfillment of that great day of atonement. This is how you become clean. But in the book of Leviticus, to be clean is not enough. You’re not holy. The next section, chapters 17 to 25, is all about how you become holy. So first you become clean, then you become holy. The book of Leviticus, in that section 17 to 25, ends with the great celebration of the year of jubilee, that time when everyone is released and everyone is now free, you see? And in Christ is where we have our ultimate freedom, our ultimate expression of joy and restoration. A fourth way that I would encourage God’s people to read Leviticus devotionally is to read it heaven-mindedly. We often forget that the Book of Leviticus is giving us, or we’re giving the Israelites, regulations that were to be practiced in the land of Canaan. And the land of Canaan is really a shadowy reflection of the new heavens and the new earth that is heaven. So that’s another way that it’s helpful, is to read it with the mind of the true promised land in mind, that is, the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, heaven itself. A fifth way that I would encourage God’s people to read the book of Leviticus devotionally is to read it existentially. That is, it’s about yourself. It’s about you. The Lord wants you to be holy. He wants to commune with you, and he wants you to be holy. This is how the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament helps the people of God go from unclean to clean, then from being clean to holy. You see, the Lord knows that sin is devastating, sin is dissatisfying. He doesn’t want us to stay in the degradations of sin. He wants us to be redeemed out of that, to live a life of holiness. The book of Leviticus, for that reason, is not just about what the Lord is doing. It’s what the Lord is doing for you. He wants to make you holy. The final way that I would encourage God’s people to read the book of Leviticus is purposefully. What is the purpose of this book? See, the purpose of this book is the Lord’s desire to commune with you, the people of God. He is holy, but we on our own are not. The book of Leviticus is there to teach us how we can become holy. Or perhaps a better way of saying it is. The Book of Leviticus describes what the Lord has done to make us holy. And in our new state of being, the holy people of God, the Lord can now commune with us. And ultimately, that is what the goal of the Book of Leviticus is all about. The Lord wants to fellowship with us. The Lord wants to commune with you. And what the Book of Leviticus is doing is describing in shadowy typological ways the ultimate redemptive work in Jesus Christ and how that is going to make you holy so that you can have a holy communion, an eternal bond of fellowship with the holy God for all eternity.
