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Summary of Leviticus
Moving on from Genesis and Exodus, from stories which are exciting and thrilling to an extent that entire movies have been based upon them, Leviticus at first tastes like a piece of dry bread: Laws, rituals, religious ceremonies, requirements for the priesthood (from the tribe of Levi, hence Leviticus), and lots of things which seem so irrelevant for today. However this book is not supposed to bore anyone: It was written by Moses in order to make life between a holy God and unholy, unclean people possible. For their own safety God had to establish guidelines for the Israelites. It was literally a matter of life and death.
To summarize the main message of this book in just three easy to remember bullet points: Leviticus points out
- the Holiness of God
- that God is “set apart”, unique, perfect
- the Sinfulness of man
- contrasting man against God
- showing our need for cleansing before we can enter into God’s presence
- the Providence of God
- how God bridged the gap between himself and his people
the Storyline of Leviticus (cha. 16)
In the middle of Leviticus (Lev.) we find the description of the Day of Atonement (cha. 16). God commanded that one bull and two goats had to be sacrificed in a ceremony on that day: One of the goats had to be sacrificed as a sin offering to God on the altar, the other one was the so called scapegoat (verses 7-10). Aaron, the high priest, had to lay his hands on the scapegoat, confess “all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites” over it, and send it into the wilderness where it would die in solitude. This way the scapegoat atoned for the sins of Israel. In other words: It paid with its life the price for the sins of the Israelites who otherwise would have had to pay that price for their sins themselves.
the Foreshadowing of the Cross
In Lev. 16:20-22 the high priest placed all the “wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites” on the scapegoat which would pay the price for it with its death. The same way God placed all the wickedness and rebellion (sin) of mankind on Jesus on the Cross where he paid the price for it in our place. Jesus atoned for our sins.
This pattern of atonement is picked up by various authors all across the Bible: The prophet Isaiah for example lived about 700 BC (before Christ) and foretold the suffering of the Messiah in cha. 53:4-7. The apostle Peter who witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus reaffirmed this prophecy in 1. Peter 2:21-25. During his lifetime Jesus himself repeatedly predicted his atoning death as well as his resurrection: Matthew 20:17-19 is the most specific of those predictions and includes his flogging and crucifixion. In addition to these passages, Jesus also explained to his disciples after his resurrection why he had to die (Luke 24:46-47): He had to die so that the message of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” would “be preached in his name to all nations.” Forgiveness of sin became possible in his name since the sins of the world had been placed on his head and since he had paid the price for it. In Mark 10:45 Jesus further states that he came to “serve” and “give his life as a ransom for many”. Since the wages of sin is death – as we can read in Romans 6:23 – he had to ransom our lives through his death. Finally John, the beloved disciple, mentioned the atoning death of Jesus in one of his epistles as well (1. John 2:2; 1. John 4:10).
Furthermore the instructions for the Day of Atonement regarding the scapegoat included that it had to die outside of the Israelites’ camp: A man would have to lead it into the wilderness where it would die in solitude. The same way Jesus had to die “outside the city gate” of Jerusalem (Hebrews 13:11-12). Abandoned by God and man (his disciples had all left him out of fear) he died in solitude.
Interception: Discernment
The Bible as a whole can be compared to a huge puzzle: There are many pieces to the puzzle and together they portray a picture about who God is and who we are. One piece on its own will never reveal the entire picture and might even lead to false conclusions. This is why it is important not to take verses out of its context. If there are passages in scripture which seem to be at odds with each other we have to take a step back and take a look at the overall picture. Then – and only then – the pieces will fall into place.
Let us take Jesus on the Cross and his Father’s role in the crucifixion as an example. We read in Matthew 26:36-46 that Jesus was in agony in the night of his arrest. He saw what was coming his way and this led him to plead with his heavenly Father: He repeatedly asked that this “cup” may be taken away from him. Since the New Testament had not been written yet we know that Jesus was living and thinking in the context of the Old Testament scriptures: He frequently quoted them and fought his “battles” with them (e.g. Matthew 4:1-11). If we want to find out what Jesus meant with the “cup” and its content we have to look there:
- Psalm 75:6-8 talks about a “cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices” which the wicked will have to drink
- Jeremiah 25:15-17 talks about a “cup filled with the wine of my [God’s] wrath”
The “cup” which Jesus referred to in the garden of Gethsemane is symbol for the wrath of God directed towards sinners. Since Jesus would take all those sins to the Cross the wrath of God would be directed towards him, to the one “who knew no sin” (2. Corinthians 5:21). And Jesus knew what that meant: Isaiah 53 had already been written prophesying about him, the suffering servant, who would be punished, who would be stricken, who would be crushed, who would be made to suffer … all by God the Father in a legal act of judgement. The Roman crucifixion was part of Jesus’ suffering, no doubt about that, but the aspect which probably terrified Jesus the most was the outlook of his Father punishing him: The one who had always been with him in perfect harmony would turn against him and crush him. This is what the book of Leviticus emphasizes over and over again: God as a holy God cannot share his presence with unclean, wicked people. Jesus himself was not wicked, was not unclean, was not defiled, but he took all of that on himself like a garment so that God in punishing him could extend mercy towards mankind and still be just. This is the overall picture we have to keep in mind. This is the puzzle of the Cross.
Discernment, noun
the ability to judge people and things well(Cambridge Dictionary)
The reason why it is important to recapitulate this aspect of the Cross, the Father crushing his Son, is the lack of discernment in the lives of too many Christians which needs to be addressed. The first example touches upon the mentioned topic of God, the Father, crushing his only begotten Son: In 2006 a book with the title “The Shack” written by Paul Young was published. As of May 2019, over 18 Million copies have been sold. Adding to that a movie based on Young’s book was released with the same title in 2017. Praises for the book and the movie could be heard from many different directions. On the one hand this was not surprising given the fact that the story contains many beautiful elements. On the other hand it was puzzling to hear those praises also from public Christian voices since the controversial aspects of “The Shack” were either addressed only superficially or not at all. Aspects like
- “the Shack” claiming that God, the Father (depicted as a woman) was crucified with his Son on the Cross,
- “the Shack” claiming that God does not punish,
- “the Shack” suggesting that hell is not real and that everyone is going to heaven after all,
- “the Shack” distorting the biblical description of the Trinity,
- “the Shack” leaning heavily into the direction of Universalism (all ways/all religions lead to God),
- “the Shack” making lots of statements which are at least ambiguous.
A little bit of research clarifies why Paul Young’s version of God sounds so different from the God described in the Bible: Paul Young does not believe in the God of the Bible. He has created his own liberal version of him which he sells to the public not only in “the Shack” but also in his book “Lies we believe about God”. The reason for too many Christians buying books and movies like “the Shack” is that they are not armed with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20). At least they have a dull sword because the sword represents the word of God, and the word of God opposes “the Shack” and “Lies we believe about God” on multiple levels. Following two recommended videos are listed which go deeper into this specific subject:
In general movies produced by Hollywood have to be treated with utmost caution from a Christian perspective since Hollywood promotes excessive violence, pornographic material, blasphemy, New Age etc. to its audience. Furthermore Hollywood screens numerous actors who openly declare their allegiance to the devil, and it drops actors who refuse to engage in graphic scenes.
The second and final example for the lack of discernment within parts of the contemporary church is worship. This becomes painfully obvious when we take a look at lyrics of some contemporary worship songs. Lyrics being human-focused and not God-focused can be kind of subtle and could therefore be overlooked at first glance. However there are lyrics of popular worship songs out there which bluntly oppose the Bible. One of those blunt examples is a German song called Was fuer ein Gott (What a God) which claims – in the midst of a beautiful worship song – that one of Jesus’ bones was broken … a direct contradiction to John cha. 19. As of September 2019 this song has more than 10.000 likes on YouTube. The list could be continued with other telling examples. It is time for the church, for professing believers to wake up. We are warned through the Bible time and time again that we should be on our guard against false teachers: We better take heed to it!
the Shadow at one Glance
Leviticus 16
- the high priest had to lay all the sins of Israel on a goat, the so called scapegoat
- after that the scapegoat had to die outside of the Israelites’ camp in solitude
the Gospel
- on the Cross God laid all the sins of mankind on Jesus, the proverbial scapegoat
- after that Jesus, the scapegoat, died outside the walls of Jerusalem in solitude
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