Leviticus Overview

Leviticus records God’s instructions for sacrifices, priests, purity, and worship so Israel could approach a holy God according to His commands. The continual offerings, the Day of Atonement, and the work of the priesthood show that sin required sacrifice and cleansing. The priests served continually, and access to God’s presence was limited. Leviticus reveals God’s holiness and shows that His people needed atonement in order to draw near to Him.

Transcript

Podcast Mission And Release Rhythm

Phil Porter 0:00

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachmethebible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.

Why Most People Skip Leviticus

Phil Porter 0:27

Well, welcome everybody back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. My name is Phil Porter. I'm alongside Dr. David Klingler. And today we're entering a book that many of you, if you're honest with yourself, have not read, skipped over, because the moment you went to the beginning of the Bible, you got through Genesis, you were pretty fine. You really liked the story, you could follow it. You got into the Exodus, you're like, okay, I've heard some of these things. And then you start to get to the end of Exodus, and then it slows down. And then you got to Leviticus and thought, I can't do this anymore. What's the next event? And you skipped to numbers or wherever that next event was. Yep. And then that's where you picked up. And uh all of us have done this, okay? It's totally normal. Uh, but the problem is, is you're missing a lot uh with that. And Leviticus wasn't just written so that you could figure out some type of measurements. There's a lot actually here, and that's what Clino's gonna help us discover today. And so uh today is gonna be a different type of deal. We're gonna overview it today, which means cleanly you're gonna walk us through a lot of the things that are uh important of what to understand about the book and things like that. But if you're a listener, this is huge for you because one, you're gonna be told Leviticus and be able to understand it, and you you're just gonna read along, or you're just gonna kind of follow along with this, which hopefully is a massive help to you. Two, it is the third book in the Torah. There is a reason this book was written. And so you definitely need to know this because you need to know Torah. If you know Torah, you can understand the rest of the Bible. So uh, David, today we're in Leviticus.

Leviticus As God’s Direct Speech

Dr. David Klingler 2:12

Yeah, we are. And um, if we were to have a red letter edition of the Old Testament, you know, so in other words, red letter in the New Testament, that's when Jesus talks. Red letter in the Old Testament, that's when God talks. Um, Leviticus would be the key book. Uh, it is the Lord speaking all the way through. I mean, chapter after chapter after chapter. Uh, and so when we come to these books, and you're right, we read uh the story of Genesis and the story of Exodus, and we get out to about Exodus chapter 25, where the Lord begins to give Moses instruction on building the tabernacle. Um, and it gets really slow and dry because we don't think of it as having any application to us, and in some ways it doesn't. You know, this was Old Testament Israel in the wilderness, uh, building the tabernacle, uh, and this was going to travel with them until they set up the temple uh in Jerusalem, when they built the temple in Jerusalem under King Solomon. So that there this is gonna be a long time. Israel's gonna need this instruction. And um, and so all the details are there. We don't, you know, apply these, we they're not applicable to our lives. Um, we can maybe talk about why some of the things are the way they are, and there's certainly reasons for why things are the way they are and how they're structured in the tabernacle. But uh, but we don't think about it in that way. There's not theological application per se. There's certainly not practical application unless you start to get creative and make stuff up. You know, we don't want to do that. If it doesn't say why, it just says this is how you do it, right?

Phil Porter 3:53

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 3:53

Uh, and you know, there have been several people who've recognized that that the tabernacle temple imagery uh has a lot of garden imagery in it, and that's that's right. Um, and we'll talk about that when we get there. But uh if you're reading the story, uh and if you're reading Genesis through really 2 Kings, but at least Genesis through Deuteronomy as a story, uh, where you skip, where you would want to skip, because the story's going, is you go Genesis, Exodus, then you skip over to maybe a little section there in uh the towards the end of Exodus, which gives you a little bit of reprieve. It's Israel rebels, it's the story of the golden calf, and then Exodus 34, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate, gracious, slow, anger, abounding, love, kindness, and truth. Um, you have that little section, some key verses there, verses we like, goes back to building the tabernacle in chapter 35 through the end of the book, and it continues, that narrative just continues into Leviticus, all the way through Leviticus, all the way to Numbers chapter 10, which is why you skip Leviticus and you page in through Numbers, and you know, and then you get back to kind of the story of Israel's rebellion at Kaddish Barnea. And then you can read it for a while. Uh, you know, so the rest of the book of Numbers, you got some some story uh that's carrying on. There's not this straight instruction. Uh, and then you get to Deuteronomy, and it's another long quote. It's what Moses said to Israel before they take the land, and you skip that, right? And so you're skipping the sections where Moses is instructing Israel, or the Lord is instructing Moses to instruct Israel. Um, and these are two key passages uh that you need to be able to understand to interpret what follows in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all the Old Testament, all the New Testament, the parables. Uh, the book of Hebrews is a commentary basically on the significance of Leviticus and the significance of the person of Christ and the high priest and and uh Christ as the great high priest, the Melchizedekian priest who makes intercession. So there's so much here that we need to to understand, both uh for understanding the Old Testament story, and then it's built upon in the New Testament. And so uh so that's very important. So, so um the other thing that we need to mention, so so the huge quotes, right? So all of chapter one, right? It says, you know, uh the the the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him at the ten of meeting, saying that's how chapter one, verse one begins, and that runs for chapters, you know, and he said, quote, chapter one, chapter two, you know, and it just keeps going and going and going. And all that it says, I think through the first seven chapters is, and the Lord said, quote, and the Lord said, quote, or the Lord spoke to him at the tent of meeting, saying, quote, and so there's quote, quote, quote, on all the instruction um of how this is tent of meeting is supposed to operate. But

Reading Torah As One Story

Dr. David Klingler 7:06

if you're gonna understand what's going on here, you have to go back into Exodus. Uh, and so in Exodus, remember the story of Exodus. Um, really, to understand Exodus, you gotta go back to Genesis. So let's really go back to Genesis chapter 15 and let's rehearse what's happened. So in Genesis, we have Abraham. Abraham has been told that uh I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you, I will curse. In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Um, that's in chapter 12 of Genesis. Uh chapter 13, 14, 15, you know, time has passed, and Abraham, it's still name's still Abram, hasn't been changed yet. Uh, he says, How will I know that I will inherit the land since I have no seed? And so he's told he will. Uh, and this is how he will know, and he's told in chapter 15, Abram's told by the Lord in chapter 15, here's what's going to happen. You're gonna die at a you know, at an old age, and your descendants are going to be in a land not theirs for 400 years, and at the end of 400 years, I will appear and I will lead them out. Right? And so uh we track with Isaac and Jacob and the sons, and they are down in Egypt at the end of the book of Genesis, 70 and all. And that's where the book of Exodus begins, right? So Exodus jumps jumps over a lot of time and doesn't say much of anything about it. So one of the things that happens in story is what we call narrative time, right? The the story slows down when it gets really important, okay. Um the the plot, the only things that are recorded in the story are those things that are relevant uh relevant to the plot development. Okay. And so in the garden, uh, you know, I don't know what all Adam and Eve were told doesn't say. Maybe that's all that was said. I doubt it. Uh, but it is all that Moses needed to tell Israel so that they understood the plot. God put Adam and Eve in the garden. Uh, you know, let us make man in our image and our likeness be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Gave them instructions in the garden, and they rebelled, and they're expelled from the garden. And the the plot that's going to play out until the promised seed comes through a specific genealogy, and that genealogy is Israel. That's why we need to know who these people are. Israel needs to know who they are, where they're going, why they're going there, and what they're supposed to do when they get there. So the promised seed that's going to fix all of creation is coming through them. And they are going to be chosen to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. All this is going to develop in the story. And so the only things that are being told are the things that are relevant to that plot development. Chapter four, you know, see the woman, see the serpent, Cain and Abel, enmity between the two. Chapter five, the genealogy that tracks uh to uh, you know, to Noah. Get on the boat, get off the boat, another genealogy tracks to Abram. You know, we're tracking only the things that are relevant. And in those genealogies, the only thing that is mentioned in generation after generation is a name, and that's it. There's no details. Uh Enoch walked with God. That's about it. Lamek, you know, had a son named Noah. That's it. The rest of them, they they just get their name mentioned, and most people don't even get that, right? And then you get to the Noah story, and the the time slows. The narrative slows, and the story is told at a much slower pace. And so chapters six through nine, uh, you have you know the just the flood, right? Basically, what happened right before the flood and what happened right after the flood. Uh, and then you get to chapter 10, another genealogy, chapter 11, entire Babel, chapter 12. Even in Abraham's life, in Isaac's life, you don't get a lot of detail. It just there's certain stories, certain days where you know Abraham was going to take Isaac and he's told to go sacrifice him. Well, that's a whole chapter, right? That that event takes a chapter. But what happened the day before that, the day after that, we don't know. Doesn't

Narrative Time And Why It Slows

Dr. David Klingler 11:23

say.

unknown 11:23

Okay.

Dr. David Klingler 11:23

And so that's what we mean by narrative time. The narrative slows to record the really important events. The slowest narrative time, maybe in the whole Old Testament, is in Leviticus. In end of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, right? Uh and so, for example, uh in chapter two of Exodus, Moses' birth, right? It's the only event that's recorded. It gets half a chapter. It says he was born. A Levite, married a Levite, had a Levite, was raised by Pharaoh's house. That's it. And then he was grown, right? So 40 years, and there's not much said. Uh halfway through chapter two, uh, then uh you pick up this beginning of this uh 40 years of Exodus, uh Moses's Exodus, where Moses' uh not Exodus, he's he's out in the wilderness, uh, exile. Uh not Exodus, but exile. He's out in the wilderness. Um it begins with this event where he sees a Hebrew, you know, um uh in a in a Israelite or an Egyptian fighting, and he strikes down the Egyptian, and and it ends, the 40 years ends with the burning bush. And Moses is told to go deliver his people, right? And so in between that, not a whole lot happens, just uh couple stories. Um then uh Moses goes to Israel or goes back to Egypt, and he's going to deliver the people, and the pace slows, right? And and it's plagues, yeah. The plagues and all that, they come out in chapter chapter 15. So it so Exodus um you know the exodus happens in 1446. Moses is born in 1526. So 80 years old is when the Exodus occurs, and there's only a few details in in a couple chapters, a few chapters, about Moses' life. But then the narrative time slows for the Exodus, the 10 plagues, the Passover lamb coming out, the celebration of the coming out in chapter 15, the covenant. Israel starts complaining right away, but Israel enters into covenant with the Lord, right? Uh, and so this is all happening pretty quickly. When we get to Exodus chapter 40, by Exodus chapter 40, um where the the pace is still moving. Um you know, the the it's moving, but it's moving much more slowly, right? So uh in uh in Exodus chapter 19 through chapter 40. So the the basically the second half of the book of Exodus takes 10 months, right? So we're not talking about a whole lot of time. The first two chapters, you know, took 40 years. Now we're taking 10 months for 20 chapters, right? Um in the middle of that section, uh you get uh the Lord is outside of the uh of the tent. Moses would go outside. This is in chapter 33. It says that Moses uh would go outside of the camp. He set up a tent there to meet with the Lord. And this was you know called you know the tent of meeting or whatever, but but um he's also going up to the mountain to meet with the Lord, be given instruction. And during that time, the Lord says, Get down there. Israel has rebelled. This is in chapter 32. Chapter 32 is the golden calf incident. Israel has rebelled. And the Lord says to Moses, I'm not going with you. Uh if I am in and go with this people, I will kill them all. I will not go in their midst. And Moses intercedes. He says, Lord, you have to go, right? You promised you have to go. Uh, and so the Lord says, Okay, uh, then this is how it's going to happen.

Golden Calf To Tabernacle Logic

Dr. David Klingler 15:24

This begins this section of instruction to build their tabernacle so that the Lord will dwell in the midst of his people. How does a holy Lord, a holy God, uh sinless God, dwell in the midst of a stiff-necked, rebellious people who don't do anything right, refuse to so all provision for sin and sacrifice and intentional and unintentional, all has to be accounted for. And this is what the book of Leviticus is going to do. The end of the book of Exodus says, okay, here's how you're going to build the tabernacle. Here's how, you know, the curtains, here's the rods, here's the boards, here's the ark, all of the components of the tabernacle. And here's the rules of drawing close to the Lord through the sacrificial system, through the celebratory days, you know, the Day of Atonement, the days of celebration, uh, through the priesthood. This is the book of Leviticus. And then into the beginning of the book of Numbers, um, and this is how Israel is going to be arranged around the camp, right? So we're still in the same section. This is why we cannot read books in isolation, uh, particularly when we're in the Old Testament, when the story is running across book boundaries, right? Um, there is no way that you can start in Leviticus chapter one and make any sense of it unless you understand the Exodus story and what's happened in the book of Exodus, particularly in chapters 32, 33, 34. Israel rebels, um, the tabernacles, you know, you know, so the Lord is going to travel with these people. Uh, and if we go back to chapter 33, let me read chapter 33, Exodus 33, verse 7. Now Moses used to pitch a tent outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And it came about whenever Moses uh went out to the tent, all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his own tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of the cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, the young man, would not depart from the tent. And so uh this was you know kind of the how they did it. But there but Moses is being given the instruction on how to build a tabernacle so that this would travel in the midst of Israel, right? Now, the the camp's gonna sit here uh until the tabernacle is constructed, right? So the instruction is being given. Remember, we said in chapters 19 through 40, it's 10 months. Okay. Um, and it is from the really the making of the covenant, the instruction of the tabernacle to travel, Israel in their midst, uh, and that tabernacle is going to be completed by the end of the book of Exodus. The book of Leviticus is one month. The whole book takes one month. That's about as slow a pace narrative pace-wise as you can get. This is a very detailed account of how Israel was to operate uh in their relationship with the Lord. When we get to the first uh really 10 chapters of the book of Numbers, it's 20 days, right? So um when we look at um from the beginning of Leviticus till Numbers chapter 10, chapter 11, verse 1, uh we've got basically 50 days. That is very slow-paced. And that's the part that you're skipping. You're going, I don't care about this detail. I'm gonna skip it. Now, the problem is the rest of the story, the rest of the wilderness wandering, the rest of the story is to be evaluated in light of much of the instruction that's given in the book of Leviticus. So when the story slows, right? Um, let me give you a New Testament example. Two of them. Um, everyone who's a uh Matthean scholar, uh studies the book of Matthew, or a Johannine scholar studies the book of John will tell you that the that the let's start with John. Uh the upper room discourse is huge. Um you get Jesus' birth in chapter one, and he starts to do miracles at the beginning of his ministry, right? So there's a big jump, right? His you know, he's he word became flesh, tabernacle among us. Doesn't even record the details of his birth, just said that he became flesh. Uh picks up with his baptism at the end of you know, middle of chapter one. Um chapter two is his ministry. And so the chapters two through uh, I guess twelve would would be a course of three years, but thirteen through seventeen is one night. Thirteen fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen. We call it the uproar discourse. That is what Jesus said to his disciples in one night, and the pace slows, and you get to listen to seemingly every word, or at least a lot of the words that Jesus says, and those words explain what's going on in the rest of the book, what has happened previously in the book, the significance of it, and the significance of what these disciples are to do going forward in the rest of the book, right? They're to take the word into the world, bear fruit for eternal life. Um, and by the end of the book, they're fishing. And so Jesus has to get them back to doing their job. Same thing here. The text, uh the story slows, and we need to listen. Israel needed to listen to this detail. This was so important to their daily existence. Uh, same thing with the Sermon on the Mount. We talk talk about in the book of Matthew, the discourses of Jesus. The times when the disciples ask Jesus a question, or Jesus teaches the people, Sermon on the Mount, and the narrative time creeps to a halt, and you get to listen to Jesus talk. And his talk is the means by which the reader is to interpret all that Jesus says in the book. It's there's a reason why Matthew is recording. According to what Jesus is saying here is because it relates to the rest of his book. So it is with Torah. These are the words that are to evaluate how Israel is doing with the rest of the story. And we're going to get to where they don't even know what the book of the law is. They don't even know they're so far away from doing what's instructed. And some of the actions that the Lord takes against Israel are extreme. We're going to see some of this in the book of Leviticus. When right after these instructions are instituted, two of the sons of Aaron are going to offer what is called strange fire. And they're going to be killed immediately. But we're going to watch in this story pretty quickly. Get into numbers in Joshua and they it's like they don't even know. They've never read it. Eli's sons are eating the fat portion of the sacrifice. You're going, what in the world are they doing? Have they not read? Yes, that's exactly right. They don't know the word of the Lord. Sounds like Pharisees and Jesus. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, have you not read? And so this is such a key part. Now, here's the struggle.

Why Leviticus Still Matters Today

Dr. David Klingler 23:21

Um, and there's there's a few of them. One, it's very detailed. Um and uh and it was written to Israel so that they would know what to do uh with the temporal sacrifices and all that. We're way past that. Christ has come. Uh we're Gentiles, we don't have the sacrificial system. Uh Christ is our high priest, he's made uh uh you know payment for our sin. And so none of this is relevant to our daily application of life. But it is directly relevant to our understanding of the Old Testament story. How is the author showing what Israel is doing through their violation of the law? If you don't know the law, you don't know that they're violating it, and you can't interpret the story. Uh and so uh you have to interpret the Old Testament story per the law, not per our New Testament, New Covenant theology imposed back on it, right? Um does that make sense, right? Yep. Uh and so if we want to understand the Old Testament and if we understand the significance of the person and work of Christ, we have to understand the Old Testament. The only way to understand the Old Testament is to understand Torah. The only way to understand Torah uh is to track the narrative time, and this is where it gets the slowest. The slowest parts, the most important parts, are the parts we're not reading, as we started out. You read in Genesis, you read in Exodus, and that's great, you should. Uh those stories explain why the Levitical priesthood is to operate the way he is and why the sacrifices are necessary. But the the but the means by which and the manner in which the sacrifices are being carried out is recorded at the end of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. That's the part you're skipping. You're jumping forward to the story, but you can't interpret the story. Uh so you read the rest of the book of Numbers, it's great. Uh, you get to Deuteronomy and it's back to instruction, and you quit reading. But these are the two places where Israel's relationship with the Lord are spelled out. And what will happen if they rebel against the Lord? And this is what's going to play out in the rest of the Old Testament story, in the exile, um, in their continued rebellion, not only in their continued rebellion against the Lord, but their rejection of the Christ. All of this is spelled out in the Old Testament specifically, in these law sections, which we're skipping. If we want to know the Old Testament, do you have to know these sections? Uh and so um we will summarize some of these sections. We're not gonna read you know all the detail as we go through these, but we will definitely point out uh the parts of the law uh which have later relevance in interpretive uh purposes for understanding the rest of the Old Testament story. And so that's what we'll try to do. We won't, you know, at least my thought is let's not you know make this so detailed and so dry that not only do people not read Leviticus, they don't listen to the podcast on Leviticus either. So let's do them a favor and let's summarize Leviticus and help them understand it. And then if they want to go back and and read it, they can make some sense of it. Yeah.

Phil Porter 26:29

Well, and again, you're gonna help us by by tying things that go backwards, but then also tying things that are forwards. And so it's not just you know, when we're when we're doing this overview as right now, but when we dive in, it's not just listening to what you're saying, it's also trying to tie all of this uh together because again, we're we're a long ways removed from God's instruction to Israel, but this is very important for us to know how it connects. Yes, and you and you you gave an emphasis earlier, Leviticus. There's a lot in Hebrews that refers to Leviticus. Absolutely. So uh what what can you flesh out a little bit more? What do you mean by is it just priestly or or what what is that

Hebrews And The Once For All Sacrifice

Phil Porter 27:16

mean?

Dr. David Klingler 27:16

Well, so so the the whole um access back, right? So everything that we're doing in uh our understanding of the Bible has to tie back to the plot, uh creation, fall, expulsion from the garden. And that's the reason why I mentioned earlier that so many uh Old Testament scholars, um Torah scholars, have recognized uh so much similarity in language between the temple tabernacle and um the garden. Genesis chapter two, really the garden. Uh and so expulsion from the garden, you know, the angels standing at the edge. Uh no one can enter into the Holy of Holies, right? And uh and so these uh angels stand guard, so to speak, and the the the details that are inside the Holy of Holies, and then kind of the you know the outer court, Israel um had access, and then you know, this as you went further away, you know, it was uh uh you know kind of signaling Israel's relationship to the Lord, they were close to the Lord, Kingdom of Freeze, closest. Uh and so there's a lot going on there. But um uh but the high priest could never enter in to the Holy of Holies, but once a year, and he had to make not only uh you know bring sacrifice for the people, but also for himself. Um and um the story is so I was I was teaching a uh PhD seminar and the students were saying, you know, I was saying, okay, what's the point of the book? And they were saying, Be holy. I'm going, really? Are you sure? Um I mean, does that isn't the point uh you know to isn't it the the point that you need to recognize that God is holy and you're not? God is sinless and perfect and you're not? And so you were to recognize your need for sin all the time, intentional, unintentional, that no one could enter in, no one could get back into the garden, no one had access. You're waiting for this one who would come and who would regain access. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. It was just constant killing of animals, it was constant burning of incense, it was constant, uh never-ending. Uh, but when Christ made his sacrifice once for all, he sat down. The Levitical priest's job was never done. Christ sat once for all, making payment for sin. Uh, and so uh what the writer of Hebrews is doing is showing you the significance of Christ in contrast to the work of the Levitical priesthood, which was never done. Now, why was that important? Because the the Jews wanted to go back to the priesthood, go back to the Levitical uh system for covering, for sacrifices, for worship. And the the author of Hebrews' point is you can't go back. The point of the whole Old Testament story was to go forward to Christ. It was to show you that there is no going back, there is no payment for sin. There's a covering, but there's no taking away. Christ took it away. It was a once-for-all sacrifice. All this was forward-looking, all the law, all the prophets, all the psalms speaks of Christ. You know, don't think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one accuse you is Moses. If you believe Moses, you believe me. For Moses wrote of me, this whole sacrificial system is looking for the once-for-all sacrifice for sin. Uh, and so if you don't understand the problem that that uh is presented, how does a holy God dwell in the midst of a wicked people? Uh well, it's not gonna be easy. There's gonna be a lot of sacrifices, uh, and there's no access back. Uh, we need one who will be the once-for-all sacrifice who will tear the veil and reopen entrance back into the garden. Uh, and that is what the Christ has come and what he has done, making intercession for our sins at the right hand of the Father even now, Psalm 110, and will uh return to establish an everlasting kingdom. So, so this is um you know, this is the significance of the book of Leviticus. If you skip this, uh in in narrative terms, we we call this rising action, uh complication of the plot. It's getting more difficult. It seems like there's no answer. Who could possibly ever be worthy enough to enter in? And the answer is not you, not the priest, only one. Only one. We're waiting for this one. And if you're not getting that out of Leviticus, not only how hard it was uh to keep the law, uh you know, remember uh I'm I'm reminded of uh of over there in Acts chapter 15 and uh and the discussion with the disciples, and uh and they're talking about this uh you know this this yoke that uh was put on them. Um uh he you know Peter is talking, they're talking, he says, and God who knows the heart testifies to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he said did to us, Gentiles, just as he did to us Jews. And he made no distinction between them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing uh on the neck of the disciples um uh a yoke which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear? That was the yoke. This was the yoke, this was the point. You couldn't do it, you couldn't be perfect enough. Um, Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He came and showed ever that everyone, you know, the Pharisees were saying, well, let's just lower the standard so we can keep it. Jesus says, No, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Didn't work out for Aaron's sons. And there's only one who is perfect, and that's the one that this story is waiting for, right? And so, you know, if you're if you read Leviticus and you're just tired, you're thinking, how on earth did they ever pull this off? Well, the truth of the matter is they didn't. They just gave up, you know, and they quit following the Lord.

Phil Porter 33:44

Um, but they were looking to be supposed to be looking for the Lord.

Dr. David Klingler 33:48

Well, the remnant continued to be, but most of Israel just God was faithful and went after other gods. It's easier to follow other gods, right? Yeah, yeah. There's no salvation in other gods, you know. But let's go over there to Baal, to the foreign god. Uh, maybe they'll he'll cause the rain to fall, because this is just too hard. You know, and uh and so this is the the rising action, the the increasing conflict in the story. Um you know the Lord's about to wipe them out. Moses says don't wipe them out, be in their midst. How's that gonna work? Uh it's gonna be tough, yeah. Right? And this is uh this is the spelling out of that system.

What The Name Leviticus Means

Phil Porter 34:29

Yeah. And just before uh we close down, you talked about Levitical priests, and we you went to Hebrews coming back, but Leviticus, Levi, Leviticus, like that type of thing. It what is there meaning there, or can you help us understand like what is that?

Dr. David Klingler 34:46

So the the uh in Hebrew it's just called uh he the Hebrew title for the book is just uh and he called. You know, it's the first words of the book. Uh, and he called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tenamiti. Um the the Leviticus comes from the Septuagint name, which is you know, has you know, that's the where the Levitical uh connection. There's only two verses uh in the book where the Levites are mentioned, but the priests are mentioned all the way through here. Uh, and really in uh from Exodus chapter 19, chapter 20, especially after the rebellion of Israel in chapter 32, you get there's the the role of the priest becomes central. How is it that Israel is going to uh exist with a holy God in their midst? Well, those priests are going to be busy, right? Yeah. Uh and so this is the book concerning the priests. How were the what was their job and how were they to mediate in between a holy God and a sinful people? Um what was the what was the law, what was the provision for that?

Stick With The Trail Closing

Phil Porter 35:57

Well, I mean, if you're listening today um and learning it firsthand like I am, there's a lot more here than you anticipated, and a lot more significant. So I think that's the a good word to use uh in this because it just feels like you know, why even go through this process if none, it doesn't apply to me. But again, if you're trying to understand the story, then how do you skip this? And so we're gonna go through a journey learning Leviticus. It'll be at a pace that will be absolutely followable. I mean, you're gonna do this for us. There's sections that maybe we don't spend too much time on. There'll be some sections that that we probably do spend time on. Uh, but it's it's the intention is this is to help the people of God understand the word of God.

Dr. David Klingler 36:41

Exactly.

Phil Porter 36:42

Our job and what we're trying to do, what Klingler's trying to do, is to help you get down the trail. So if there's any advice I could give anybody that's on the podcast, is stick with the trail. Don't don't ignore all the road signs that tell you to go elsewhere. Just keep on the road, and eventually you're gonna get there. And uh you'll see it. Your eyes will open. And uh, and and and yeah, I I I'm not an Israelite, but you know, the whole time in the Old Testament is that their eyes are supposed to be open, their ears are supposed to hear, they're supposed to understand the word of the Lord. And I think I mean that's what I want more than anything. And so I know that many people are are listening because of it. So we'll pick up next week with Leviticus chapter one, and uh, we'll just go on our journey until we hit the end and we go right into the book of numbers because it's just gonna go right into it anyway. So uh, but we will start there. So thanks for joining us today. We'll see you with chapter one. For more resources, visit teachmethebible.com or download our app from any app store. You can partner with Teach Me the Bible in helping the people of God understand the Word of God by subscribing and sharing with others. Thank you for listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.