A Walk Through the Word
Monthly column by Tessa Hershberger

Key Verse: Leviticus 20:26

Themes to Track: “Be holy for I am holy”

In this post I want to simply set the stage for the book of Leviticus. Next week will be more of a general guide through the text, to help you as you read.

I’d venture to say that it’s probably not a book that most people would get excited about reading. Unlike the other four books in the Pentateuch (the first five books in the Bible), Leviticus is not a book of narrative stories with a plot of characters, setting, conflict, and climax. Besides chapters eight through ten, the entire book is a recording of the Mosaic (of Moses) law. At first glance, it tends to bore people. However, I invite you to read and study a book that can change your daily life in such a way that you are drawn into deeper intimacy and relationship with your Creator and Father.

When God got a hold of my heart and His Spirit moved me to make Him Lord of my life, I entered into a sacred relationship with the King of all Kings. If you have made the same decision and have asked God to forgive your sin and rule your life, you also are in a relationship with God in which He called you by name to love Him, seek Him, and know Him, a holy God. Likewise, when God chose the nation of Israel to be His holy and set-apart people, He was calling them into a relationship in which they were entirely His. As the second generation of Israelites out of Egypt continue to wander through the wilderness towards the Promised Land, God continues to pursue this relationship with them.

The problem? The Israelites are not holy. God is holy, they are not. That’s because sin entered the world after the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Despite the result of that, God still chose to call the unholy nation of Israel to be His people and live lives that mirror His holiness. They were to be set apart from all other nations, wholly devoted to Him. He loved them, and He wanted them as His own, to be their God and Father. He longed to glorify His name through His set-apart ones, and make them witnesses to the other nations of His power, sovereignty, and love. He longed to reveal Himself to them, bless them, and live in closeness with them. But before He can do that, He needs to show the Israelites who He is.

The book of Leviticus shows how God reveals the nature of His absolute holiness and the fact that mankind has been separated from that. There is a gap in the relationship between God and His people, created by the sinful nature that entered into man after Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Yet in His extravagant love and mercy, God was determined to make the relationship right again. And that is where the book of Leviticus comes in.

The book of Leviticus was written by Moses to the second generation of Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Moses’ purpose was to record the law that God gave him for the Israelites so that it could be passed down to the following generations. A very important question that needs to be asked in Leviticus is why the law? Why does God give them a bunch of rules to follow? Isn’t He being a little bit extreme? Why does He demand of the Israelites such specific rituals of sacrifice and offering (see chapters 1-7)? Why all of the rules about what’s clean and what’s unclean?

The Israelites need to become aware of what sin is. They need to understand that their sinful natures separate them from relationship with God and that in order to make that relationship right, they need the redemption of a holy and perfect God. They need to know how to worship their God and how to become like Him in holiness as they enter into relationship with Him. God’s perfect holiness won’t matter to the Israelites until they realize that they are not holy because of sin.

Paul talks about this in Romans 7, where he is explaining the purpose of the Mosaic law. (See Romans 7:1-25.) For example, Paul says, one of the laws is, “Do not covet.” But if God had never said, “Do not covet”, how would we know that coveting is a sin? How would we know that it is a reflection of our selfish and sinful nature compared to a sinless and holy God? Through the law, God cries out to the Israelites, “I want a relationship with you, but I am holy and you are not! See, there is a barrier between us that comes from the sinful nature inside of you. I want to change that and make things right between us! I want to atone for your sin and show you how to live in holiness, as I am holy.”

Leviticus is an invitation to the Israelite readers to know, worship, and live like a holy God, completely set apart for Him and His glory.

Before diving into the text, think about your own life. If you are a Christian, you are a child that God has called to be His own, set apart from the rest of the world. (It was always God’s ultimate plan to make all people who received His salvation His own, not just Israelites.) As Peter writes to Christians of the early church in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Is your life a reflection of an intimate relationship with a holy God?

Are you living a life that is truly set apart for God, choosing daily to die to the selfishness of the flesh in order to leave the ways of the world and live completely for the glory of God, whether it be in thoughts, actions, or words?

Do you seek each day to obey God’s commandments in order to become like Him, not out of obligation or desire to earn salvation, but out of response to His grace and a constant desire to know Him more?

It is an insult and hurt to our Loving Creator to walk around proclaiming that we have made Him Lord of our lives, while the things we watch, read, listen to, spend money and time on, say, think, laugh at, and pursue are the same as or only a cut above the world’s.

Dig Deeper:

• Read 1 Peter 1:13-16 and 1 John 2:15-17.
• According to 2 Peter 1:3-4, what give us the power to live the above verses out?

About the Author:  Tessa Hershberger lives in Mogadore, Ohio where she is waiting for God to tell her what step to take next. She loves to write and is the author of Confessions of a Girl: Truth to Be Told. She also enjoys lots of extra hot coffee, rainy days, people-watching, and conversations about ideas, beliefs, and culture. Tessa has gradually lost all of her hearing due to a genetic neurological disease, and loves to learn and teach sign language with her friends and family. For more of her musings, visit her blog at www.TessaSean.com. Tessa welcomes reader responses to her articles. Email comments/questions to tessasean@gmail.com.