Walk Together Ministries

Bible Study Notes (Leviticus)

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Leviticus 1-4

  • Levites are descendants of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Israel
  • They are appointed to be priests in the tabernacle
  • Priest = mediator between God and people
  • 3 ways of being
    • Unclean – people are in general unclean
    • Clean – This book is about how to become clean
    • Holy – God is holy
  • Tent of meeting = Tabernacle
  • God sets up animals as the sacrifice for sins
    • This is temporary, foreshadowing of Jesus on the cross
  • This took place aprox. 3300 years ago
  • The higher the position, the more valuable the sacrifice had to be
    • Leadership, especially spiritual leadership, comes with added weight and responsibility
  • If a priest sinned, it defiled the whole tabernacle

Leviticus 5-7

  • Difference between committing a sin and doing something that made them unclean
    • Being unclean isn’t a sin, so it doesn’t require an offering
    • Sin required a sacrifice
      • Even unintentional sin
      • Sin against someone else required an offering to God and to the person that they sinned against
  • Christ offered final sacrifice, so these laws no longer apply to us

Leviticus 8-10

  • Anointing – Apply oil to something
  • Consecrating – Setting it apart for sacred use
  • Ordaining – To establish (establishing someone in ministry)
  • God’s commands are always for the blessing of His nearness and His glory
  • Aaron makes atonement for himself first, then for this people
    • Atonement means covering
  • The order of the process: atone for sins through sin offering -> petitions and praises in burnt offering -> communion and fellowship in the peace offering
  • 2 of Aaron’s sons didn’t follow the requirements set by God.
  • God sent fire down and killed them both
    • Once again, 2 oldest sons were “passed over”
  • God speaks to Aaron directly
    • No drinking on the job
    • Protect the sacred space
    • Distinguish between the clean and the unclean
    • Teach everyone else what God revealed to Moses
  • Moses told 2 younger sons to make an offering to God and eat it
  • They didn’t eat it
  • Moses was furious

Leviticus 11-13

  • Laws around cleanness and uncleanness
  • Why were specific animals considered unclean? We don’t know.
  • Can’t eat anything that dies on it’s own, it has to be killed
  • Laws for women who give birth and they can become clean
    • If they gave birth to a female child, they were unclean for twice as long as a male child (maybe because she was giving birth to someone else would also bleed and give birth)
  • God makes the sacrifice more affordable for the poor
    • Mary and Joseph were poor (they didn’t bring a lamb, they brought a bird offering)
  • Leprosy as we see it today probably didn’t exist back then. Rather it’s used for a variety of skin conditions.
  • Unclean does not equate to sin

Leviticus 14-15

  • God is clear that he is the one in charge of putting leprosy where it shows up
    • God is sovereign even over Satan’s plans
  • God tells Moses how to handle it when their is leprosy in their houses when they finally get to Canaan
  • 3 reasons for sacrifices
    • Giving up something that costs you
    • Element of substitution (something else is covering the debt of my sin, the things being done to this animal are what I deserve)
    • Drawing near to God (they had to do the sacrifice at the entrance to the temple courts)
  • Justification – when God declares us righteous, even though we are sinners
  • Santification – God cleaning us up to look more like him

Leviticus 16-18

  • Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) Instructions
    • Only day that the high priest can enter into the holy of holies
  • God has done so much to draw his people near but there is still something to set him apart. Which is why only the high priest gets to see him
  • Aaron gets to go in on that day because he presents the sacrifice that covers the sins of the priests and the people
  • Sacrifices took place at the tabernacle
  • Aaron has to create enough smoke to keep himself from seeing God or he’ll die
  • Needs to sacrifice 2 goats
    • 1 for the Lord
    • 1 for Azazel (either means the goat that goes away or a noun referring to the goat demon)
  • Sending sins out of the camp and into pagan territory. They confess out loud, those sins go into the goat, then they set the goat free to go into pagan territory. The scapegoat.
  • God called other gods demons
  • Don’t offer children to Molech
  • Don’t have incest
  • Says to avoid adultery, beastiality, homosexuality, bigomy

Leviticus 19-21

  • God provides for the poor via the surplus of the rich
  • Don’t use wounds or disabilities to my advantage
  • Don’t let selfish emotions rule me
  • How do discern what still applies today?
    • There are 3 types of laws:
      • Civil – societies behaviors and punishments
      • Ceremonial – being clean, sacrifices
      • Moral – Declare what is right and wrong (i.e. 10 commandments)
    • Israel was a religious group that functioned as a nation, no separation of church and state
    • Today, Christians are spread out among many nations so civil laws no longer apply
      • But some of the principals still apply
    • All ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ
    • Moral laws were fulfilled in Christ but they reflect God’s character, so we need to follow those, they apply to all nations.
    • For example: If a man commit’s adultery with the spouse of his neighbor, both of them shall be put to death. This appears to be a civil law but we know God hates adultery. So we lose the civil punishment attached to it.

Leviticus 22-23

  • Reminder to look for God when we read
  • God wants his people to be clean and he is the one who makes them clean (sanctification)
  • 7 Feasts
    • Weekly feasts called the Sabbaths
    • 6 Annual feasts
      • Passover/Feast of unleavened breath
      • Feast of first fruits/Feast of harvest
      • Feast of End gathering/Feast of booths
      • Day of Atonement – called a feast but they fast on this day. Holiest day of the year. Instead of eating, they offer their food to God. They can do NO work, only the priest does the sacrifices
      • Feast of weeks/Pentecost – 50th day after passover. Only feast with leavened bread. Unleavened represents Israelites, leavened bread foreshadows the day when the gentiles will be brought into his family
      • Feast of trumpets/Rashashana – Jewish new year. Signaled 10 days notice for day of atonement. 10 days of repentence or the days of awe.
    • Can’t do any regular work but can offer sacrifices and prepare meals.

Leviticus 24-25

  • A man blasphemes God and God orders him to be stoned
    • Implying that the same rules that apply to the Israelites, applies to foreigners
  • Whoever takes a human life shall be put to death. This is a reminder that killing is different than murder.
  • Let the fields rest on the 7th year, just like people should rest on the 7th day.
  • Jubilee – 15th year. People didn’t work the land on this year either.
  • Sabbath requires faith. God promised he would provide an abundant harvest the year before this break.

Leviticus 26-27

  • God tells them the blessings and curses depending on if the covenant is kept or broken
  • If they keep it, they will blessed with peace, abundance, security, and victory over enemies
  • If they don’t, there are 5 phases of curses
    • Fear and Paranoia
    • Defeat from foreign armies
    • Lack of food that it leads to cannibalism
    • The sky won’t rain and the ground will be too hard to plant anything
    • Exile and scattering from the land he promised
    • And if at any point they repent, he won’t execute the next phase
  • God uses discipline and not punishment to try and get them back on the right path
  • A typical covenant back then, once it was broken, the deal was off but God had mercy and gave them multiple chances to repent.