Leviticus episode 1 - So You Skipped Leviticus? Big Mistake

A voice calls from the tent of meeting and a harder question follows: how can unholy people live near a holy God without being consumed? We take listeners into Leviticus with fresh eyes, showing how the book continues the story of Exodus—from rescue to relationship—and why its offerings still speak to modern hearts. With Paul Blackham and Joseph Steinberg, we unpack the burnt offering’s confrontation with the fire of holiness, the meaning of laying hands on a spotless substitute, and the way this ritual anticipates the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

We also explore the grain offering and the practice of firstfruits as a counter to pride and forgetfulness. Gratitude, dedication, and trust are not add-ons but the daily posture of a people who know every harvest and every breath come from God. Along the way, we trace the thread from Eden’s flaming sword to the burning bush and the tabernacle’s glory, asking whether anyone can pass through the fire and live. The answer, Leviticus insists, is yes—but not cheaply, not directly, and not lightly. Mediation matters, cost matters, and the result is peace.

Expect a clear path through passages many avoid, practical language that connects ancient ritual to modern discipleship, and a living hope that turns duty into joy. If you’ve ever stalled in Leviticus or wondered how sacrifices relate to Jesus, this conversation offers clarity and courage. Listen, share with a friend who’s curious about holiness and atonement, and if it helps you see the Bible’s big story more clearly, subscribe and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome At Sandown Park

unknown 0:00

Open closed cold.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Hey, book by book. And you know

Why Leviticus Still Matters

SPEAKER_02 0:33

where we are? We're right here at Sandown Park, a beautiful part of Surrey, England, where the great Christian Resources Exhibition is taking place. And we're a tiny part of that. Then we've got friends who are joining us here for this time of book study in the Bible. And uh Paul Blackham, my long erstwhile colleague from All Souls Church in Langham Place, living in London. And also we're joined by Joseph Steinberg, the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, who was born in Miami, in Florida, but is now resident in England and working with the Church Mission Society. And what we're going to do is the Book of Leviticus. Were you ready for it? I think that we're going to have what Paul would call a thrilling time together of Bible study. So why don't I start right away in this first study with reading from the book of Leviticus in chapter one, and the first four verses will do, I think. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting, so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. Let's jump straight in.

Leviticus As Lens And Mirror

SPEAKER_02 2:03

I want to ask you a question right away, Joseph of Ame. I mean, many people feel quite intimidated by the book of Leviticus. They never get through it often. Are there any words of encouragement as we begin? I mean, Paul Blackham describes it as a treasure chest. What treasures can we expect to find here?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Well, in my experience, the book of Leviticus has been very much like a piece of glass in two different ways. First of all, it's been like a lens to help me focus in and understand with deep clarity what God is like, that He's holy. But also it's been like a glass which is a mirror, so that as I look into the law, I see myself and my own condition and how sinful I am. And when I contrast what I'm like in comparison to what God is like, I actually cry, help! I need God, I need mercy, I need help. What will you do for me? So for me, the book of Leviticus was very important when I, having come from a Jewish background, was reading through the Old Testament before I became a believer in Jesus. The book of Leviticus really convicted me. My life was not what God wanted it to be. I'd fallen short of his glory and I was already very young, so I hadn't done a lot, but still I felt very distant from God as I read Leviticus. And so it had me crying out to God, help. What have you got for me, God, that will help me get back to you? Because there's no temple, there's no sacrifices, and I began to look towards perhaps the person of the Messiah, which is another thing that Leviticus shows us. So whenever I'm preaching and I bring up Leviticus, I always make the joke that, oh, perhaps you were reading Leviticus in your quiet time this morning and everybody laughs because it's probably the most neglected book of the Bible. But in fact, Leviticus is exciting because it very much parallels the book of Revelation. We see what God desires for his creation, we see what God's hope is, we see what God is like, and we see what he's committed to making us back into again. It's a very exciting book.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

We're looking forward to this very, very much indeed.

From Exodus To Leviticus

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Um Paul, when you think of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, how does the book of Leviticus relate to the book of Exodus which precedes it?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Well, we we we've studied the book of Exodus before, and it was such on with Joseph.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Joseph is wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

And of course, in that book, you've got the whole redeeming the people out of Israel, and then half of the book of Exodus is about making this tabernacle. And we had great time looking at the details of the tabernacle and how it was all put together, and we'll be looking at it more later on in Leviticus. But the book of Exodus ends with them making the tabernacle, and then the glory of the Lord comes down upon it, and then really you're supposed to immediately turn the page, and then Leviticus begins, and the Lord called to Moses. So it just begins as if it's just carrying on the sentence at the end of the book of Exodus, and it's saying, They've built this tabernacle, the Lord's living among his people as he's delivered them out, and this is what he says, and this is what he tells them to do with this tabernacle, and how they're to relate to him and what kind of a god he is. So that's why I always say to people, they know the book of the story of Moses and the plagues and things like that. They should just finish the story off by just keep reading on into Leviticus.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

I mean, they all hang together, these first five books. I suppose you could label them almost like uh Genesis, a ruined people, when you think of the four. Exodus, a redeemed people, because of the coming out from Egypt. And then you think

Why Study The Sacrifices

SPEAKER_02 5:24

of uh Leviticus, a holy people, and we realize that we're not holy. You can think of Numbers as a pilgrim people when they're on the way to the promised land. That's right. And you can think of uh Deuteronomy as a covenant people, where it's all spelt out in all these sermons by Moses as to implications of being in fellowship with God. So here we are is a very, very important part indeed. Leviticus begins, uh Joseph, with these detailed instructions starting right away about a whole range of sacrifices. Uh why do we need to study these? I mean, why shouldn't people just, you know, skip past them?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Well, a lot of people do, but in fact the sacrifices are important because as we acknowledge God's holiness, we also see his provision for our fellowship with him. Because if that which is holy meets that which is unholy, of course, that which is unholy is consumed. We're not able to exist just as light and dark, you know, and John's very clear about that. And the sacrifices, in a sense, create a range or a progress or a pilgrimage, in a sense, of our coming back into fellowship with God. So you've got atonement, you've got redemption, you've got payment, you've got cleansing, and ultimately you have dedication. So, and we're going to look at those in much greater detail, but there's a process by which we were unholy, we were unclean, were made clean, and ultimately they point us towards the day when we, like the priest, and we'll look at that later as well, when we were actually, we will be and are now called holy. So God says, be holy even as I am holy. And these sacrifices help us understand how that happens, and ultimately they point to the ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews, and we'll see

The Burnt Offering And The Fire

SPEAKER_00 7:05

this too, reminds us that the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin. That's why these were offered over and over. And Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, and these are a picture very much of the complete and entire work of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

And because people often feel a bit intimidated by them when they first read them. I always say to a person, sometimes it's helpful just to have a pen and paper by the side and just make a few headings at least to say, all right, this one's called a sin offering. And you know, just to at least get a sense that it's not an overwhelming tidal wave of detail. There is a basic structure to it, it's not impossible.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Uh just a pencil and paper as you do it, and you can actually get it a little bit lined up. I think so. Oh, that can be very helpful indeed. We started off in the reading with uh about the um the the burnt offering, Paul. Why is it called this and the what's the significance of fire here? And what does this tell us about this offering?

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Well, it fire it's the f the first offering, and you get references to the burnt offering, even back in Genesis, um, you know, Abraham would offer a burnt offering and things like that. So, and some people think of it as almost the basic offering. And because of this issue of fire, its name, I mean, it's not the only one that's offered in fire, but it's called like the offering of fire. Because it's drawing us our attention kind of to the fundamental problem. If you think back, uh, right, Genesis 3.24, Adam and Eve had sinned, there's this alienation between the holy God and now an unholy humanity, and the whole creation is now separated from him. And the thing that happens at the end of Genesis 3, as he exiles them from his presence, he establishes these cherubim, these angels, with flaming swords. And there's this idea of this fire that separates the exiles, sinful humanity, a sinful world from the holy God. And that issue of this fire that stands at the sort of boundary of God, of a holy God and a sinful people, it you it comes up all the way through. So, you know, um when Moses is commissioned at the beginning of Exodus, it's this fire, it's this bush that's on fire. Again, symbolizing this is God's presence here, and Moses is intimidating, it's a holy ground, and so on. So the idea is, you know, our God is a consuming fire, we dare not come near to him. The fire separates us from him. This offering is kind of erasing the question: is there a way back through the fire? The animal goes into the fire and it is consumed by it. Is

Jesus And The Burnt Offering

SPEAKER_01 9:45

there a way back through the fire? That's the kind of question that the burnt offering leaves with us.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And we'll come on to the question of animals and what we think about the whole question of animal sacrifice, I'm sure, as we continue. So when we think about that burnt offering, you were saying, Joseph, earlier, about Jesus fulfilling so much of what is here. Um, how does Jesus fulfill uh the burnt offering?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Well, it's interesting because if you look at more detail in the text, you see that there were actually hands placed on the animal's head as an act of identification. In other words, the person who was making the offering who had sinned would place their hands on the animal's head and confess their sin on to the animal. In a sense, there was an act of transference there. So the animal, which had to be a perfect, spotless, blameless animal, a symbol of sinless perfection, was now, in a sense, taking upon them the sin of the person who was offering them by them placing the hands on the head. Then, of course, the penalty for sin is death, and we in a sense see death is an all-consuming experience, and ultimately being separated from God forever, in a sense, is that ultimate fulfillment. And so the animal, because the penalty for sin is death, is then slaughtered in a specific way. Its throat is cut, its blood, it's poured out. We'll see later. The Leviticus 17, 11 talks about the life of the blood, you know, life of the flesh being in the blood. So the animal is sacrificed, and in the same way, Jesus, we are called to identify with him. He is the one who was sinless, perfect, spotless, blameless, symbol of sinless perfection. Um, he is on the cross for us. And uh we see, and we'll look at this in more detail deeper into the study too, but we'll see that how he suffers the curse of God because of God's wrath coming upon him as he carries the sin of the world. And ultimately there is his death when he cries out, you know, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then it is finished. And so there's a really perfect correlation there because, in a sense, uh Jesus, who is the sinless one, who is the author of life, is now consumed in death, just as fire consumes. And he does that in our place. So the sacrifice which is consumed and brings peace, which isn't perfect because it has to be offered again and again, is just a picture of what Jesus is coming to do, what the Messiah is coming to do, and Jesus ultimately fulfills in his death. And so we are called to identify with him, and through his death for us, just as for the animal, there is the exchange of life. The animal died, the offerer walked away, having peace with God, because ultimately this is atonement at one with God, peace with God. So when we trust in Christ, then we also have atonement. We are at one with God. There is peace between us and God as well, because we trust in the sacrifice of the Messiah.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

You know, Joseph, uh two centuries ago we had in Britain a mighty preacher called Charles Simeon. He was at Cambridge and where he describes how when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he was trying to find God and could not find God.

A Story Of Finding Peace

SPEAKER_02 12:38

But he began to read from the book of Leviticus, learnt then that Jesus was the fulfillment of these sacrifices, and he says how he laid his hand symbolically upon the head of Jesus, asking that he would take lift off him the sins that would otherwise cried him out of heaven, and how he found forgiveness and peace from that day on. And he became one of the finest preachers we have ever had. So it really is practically works out in human in human living. It really does. In a very exciting

The Grain Offering And Firstfruits

SPEAKER_02 13:09

way. Paul, I noticed about the grain offering, chapter two. There it is, where somebody brings a grain offering to the Lord. His offering is to be a fine flower, etc. I'd like to understand, we'd all like to understand what we can learn about the grain offering.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, the grain offering, because we're used to so many of the offerings are to do with animals being sacrificed, and as you know, we will look at that more. But the grain offering has a very special significance, and it can we think about, for instance, in Deuteronomy 28 and 29, and there's this whole vision as we get to the end of these five books of Moses, and they're going to enter into this promised land. And the Lord says through Moses, I've redeemed you, I've given you everything you've got. When you get into the land and you've got crops and houses and clothes and land, and you're enjoying all those things, the temptation will do to forget that I gave all these things to you, and you'll think, oh, yeah, no, I've got these things through my own skill and the lack of gratitude. What the grain offer, and in that, the Lord says, I want you to always give me the first fruits, that what your land produces, give it to me, so that you'll always remember I gave you these things, and as a sign of your dedication to me, that your you know everything you've got is from me, and that you're giving your everything back to me. That's what the grain offering's really all about, where he's saying, and that's why it's often in the grain offering, it's um there's uh to be no it's not to be offered with yeast, for instance, because that yeast is that whole sign of being redeemed, and so it's all that way in which the grain offering is this symbol of being absolutely dedicated, to give back to God everything, a heart that's completely given over. And as Jesus said, um you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The grain offerings really acknowledging that and saying, Yes, Lord, everything I have

Takeaways And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_01 15:05

has been given by you and I give it back to you.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

This is going to be very, very helpful indeed. I hope that you're gonna stay with us in future studies, because this is only study number one. And what have we learnt already? I suppose we've learnt that we cannot come to God cheaply, we cannot come to God directly, because there's got to be a mediator of some kind, and we cannot come to God lightly. So this is a serious study we're doing, and yet at the heart of it there is going to be full of joy and discovery. God bless you, and thank you so much for sharing in this our study today. We'll do it again.