Leviticus episode 6 - Why God’s Holiness Reaches Your Monday Morning

Holiness isn’t a Sunday hobby. We open Leviticus 17–20 and discover why worship touches money, marriage, mercy, and the moments that feel too small to matter. When God says “be holy because I am holy,” he invites us into his own life, not a checklist. That’s why the text lingers on blood: life given to heal life broken. We explore how the sacrificial system points to Jesus, whose blood doesn’t just cover guilt but grants access, cleansing shame and opening a living way into God’s presence.

From there, we step into the contested ground of Leviticus 18. Desire is powerful; boundaries protect what is precious. Together we unpack why sexual ethics sit at the heart of a community’s wellbeing, how marriage images God’s covenant love, and why treating bodies as casual erodes trust, family, and the vulnerable. This isn’t prudishness; it is a fierce protection of joy. We connect ancient commands to present questions about fidelity, consent, and the social fallout when promises break.

“Do not do as they do” is not culture war messaging; it is a call to be recognisably different for the world’s good. Israel was meant to be a public standard, a light that re-teaches what humanity is for. We talk honestly about severe penalties in Leviticus 20 and let the shock recalibrate our sense of sin’s gravity, so grace can be seen for what it is. And we ground it all in ordinary life: a family shop that sells cabbages, prays with customers, keeps Scripture at hand, and turns daily work into neighbour-love. That is social holiness—shared responsibility, public witness, and hope that changes streets as well as hearts.

If this journey helped you see worship beyond Sundays, share it with a friend, subscribe for more Bible-deep dives, and leave a review to help others find the show. What everyday place in your week could become holy ground today?

Learn more about all the Book by Book study books and video programmes.

Book by Book (biblicalframeworks.com)

Biblical Frameworks - YouTube

Transcript

Welcome And Leviticus Context

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hey, book by book, and here we are once again. It's a great honor for me, Richard Buse, joined as I am by Paul Blackham and by Joseph Steinberg, to be sharing with you in this time and coming into your situation, whether you're sitting in a vast auditorium, looking at a big screen, or whether you're in somebody's front room, sitting on a strip of carpet, and somebody's brought in a can of Coca-Cola and you've got the Bibles out, and you can have a great time together. And the master of the universe, Jesus Christ, says, I'll join you. Whether it's that or whether you're sitting on your own, however, it's uh a privilege for us to share in this time. We're doing the book of Leviticus and we're getting now to study number six. And uh it's very good to have Joseph here as our international guest who's with us. He's actually living in Oxford at the moment, representing the work of the Church Mission Society.

Worship As A Whole‑Life Calling

SPEAKER_01 1:21

We'll start, if we may, with a reading from Leviticus chapter 18. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws, and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. We're thinking a bit about, I think, the integrated life, it seems to me, and that uh as we come to Paul, I'll start with you, if I may, today. I mean, these chapters here, uh how do they relate? How do they challenge the idea that Christianity is is for Sundays only, as many people think?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Well, that's right. You sometimes meet someone who says, Well, yeah, I like to get the church thing out of the way on Sunday morning and I like to go, and then, you know, that's the whole church thing done for the week. You may as well say, Yeah, I only do my breathing on Sunday morning for half an hour, and then after that, I don't breathe anymore for the rest of the week. It's absolutely ridiculous. In fact, to be honest, it would be more sensible to do that because if we held our breath, we could probably hold our breath for 30 seconds or something, but in reality, we cannot exist without the living God, our relationship with the living God for even a portion of a second. That's the truth about reality. So when we come to the book of Leviticus and we we see it examining every area of our life, and now we're coming to a section that's really looking about um how we're gonna live out the life of God in every area of life.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Not just the worship, it's not changing.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

It's the way we live every day. Which is worship, really. It is worship. Worship is not, yeah, because some people say, I go to church because I like the worship. Um and sometimes they what they I think probably mean is I like the singing. Whereas, of course that's true. Worship of the living God is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it's the whole of our life. That's that's how we worship. That I think comes out so powerfully

Be Holy As I Am Holy

SPEAKER_02 3:29

as we see this. And we think about Leviticus 19, 1-2. Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, Be holy, because I, the Lord your God am holy. So nothing less than the life of God is the standard all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Exactly. And then as you come back actually a little bit into say chapter 17, I mean, Joseph, there's a bit there about blood and so forth. And uh I suppose one of our questions could be that why was eating of blood, you know, forbidden? And why is there such a reverence for blood?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

I think that you know blood is one of the, if not the most, significant symbol in the scriptures. Because, in fact, I'm gonna read to you directly from Leviticus 17, 11, and 12, because it says it perfectly. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I've given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, none of you may eat

The Meaning Of Blood And Atonement

SPEAKER_00 4:28

blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood. And if we think back to previous studies, we talked about the significance of blood as a cleansing agent. And it's blood that, in a sense, we're washed in symbolically, that washes that pollution of sin away. And blood is also that thing which, in a sense, is a shielding agent in terms of uh God's wrath, God's holy wrath coming on and burning up that burnt offering. Blood, the blood of Jesus specifically, is that thing which mediates God's love and his grace. So blood is a very important symbol. In fact, just to plug that in, if I read to you from Hebrews chapter 10, I'm going to read from verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body. And so what we see here again is that blood is very much, it's not the blood of bulls and goats, Hebrews 10 also says it takes away sin ultimately, it's the blood of Jesus. So blood is a very important symbol to understand as that thing which by which, in a sense, I spoke uh back in study one about this lens that we can understand God clearly and we can look at ourselves. In many ways, blood is the lens that God looks through, the blood of Jesus, so that he sees us as he sees his son. So this most important symbol isn't something to be taken lightly. God is holy, and the blood that was shed was holy, and it was expensive, and it's to be uh revered. And therefore, again, the whole basis of being unclean, you know, animals that are clean and unclean, animals that eat blood, animals that eat the flesh, it has the blood in it, in effect, in fact, or unclean. So blood is the basis of an understanding of a whole holy, unholy thing in many ways.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

So we're very careful then when we think uh talk about blood. I mean, because for Christian people, uh blood reminds us, uh it repels us with this image, first of all. It's something ugly. You think, oh, and people shrink from that thought. But then it also reminds us of our sin, the fact of Jesus Christ ultimately being the Savior through his blood, as you were saying a moment ago.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

But if you imagine back to the uh the tabernacle or even the temple, I mean everything was covered in blood. It it it made uh today's modern horror films, I'm sure, look like nothing. There was blood sprinkled everywhere, blood pouring on Passover. I mean, the stories of the blood that was just flowing down the the mountainside, just so many lambs being slaughtered, just horrific, and yet a symbol, a powerful symbol of us of the cost of sin and the cost of God in order to redeem us and make us right with him.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah, a man once wrote to me and said, uh, you know, you talk about uh Jesus dying uh on the cross for our sins, shedding his blood. Why couldn't he die for our sins just in bed? And I had to reply to him and say, Well, what the blood does is it shows us how appalling we are. That we can have the purest being that's ever lived, and we say, Let him be crucified. That's the that is a reminder of how appalling we are. But it's also a reminder, of course, of the wonderful love of God.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

And in so many of the great Christian hymns, that's why so many of them come to the theme of the blood. Would you be free from your burden of sin, there's power in the blood? What a tremendous Christian hymn that is. And you know, whenever it's sung, it really moves.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

If there's anyone sharing in this uh study from Northern Ireland, when they sing it in Northern Ireland, the roof blows off. The particular song, this power in the blood. It's a very, very important concept. Paul, can I ask you a question? As we're looking at this chapter 18, why is a whole chapter given over to sexual purity? And it's all there.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

It's all there, and as we read through it, it's just like uh a long list of issues. And I think it's important because it is an incredibly profound aspect of human existence, and we know that, and everybody knows that, and it's something which it's a power within us, and um

The Shock Of Sacrifice And Our Sin

SPEAKER_02 8:12

God has it's not and sometimes people think, oh, you know, this is um any sort of sexual relation is sort of sinful and that sort of thing. Whereas the Lord God's saying, No, that isn't true, no, that isn't true at all, and he he's he's in this chapter kind of marking a perimeter and saying everything inside this perimeter is fine. I created this, it's my creation, I I I love it, but outside this perimeter, it's the whole sense, there's so much in Leviticus that uh the boundary between the the unclean, the clean, the holy, and it's it's a it's a way of drawing a boundary, tremendously profound aspect of human life. And why is a whole chapter given over to it? Well, I think it's because relationships are so important to the living God, and so much in here is about social justice and compassion and truth and purity, and this relationship, the sexual relationship, marriage, family, these are the sort of the core relationships of human existence, and he cares passionately about them and he's protecting them and guarding them and defining them, and also because why does he so much care about, for instance, marriage? Well, it's because in this profound and deep sense, his own relationship to his people is a marriage, and the scripture returns to that time and time again. We're thinking of Hosea or Ephesians or Revelation or even in Genesis at the beginning, and how he's he's saying to us, I want that relation, I want you to see examples of, for instance, a husband laying down his life for his wife, and for these two to be together, united, because that is a picture of how I am for my people. So he cares about marriage and he cares about purity. That's what really is going on in Leviticus 18.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

So we therefore have to surround and protect that whole creation ordinance in that a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two should become one flesh. Yes. That tremendous marriage principle is right at the heart of anything, even before the law is given.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Even before the law is given. And that is actually, I think, Jesus' favourite scripture, that that bit from Genesis 2. He quotes it, I think, more than anything else.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Indeed. So we're told, Joseph, uh as I was looking again at the reading we had a moment ago, when the uh people of Israel had to be different from the surrounding people, like in Egypt

Why Leviticus 18 Focuses On Sexual Purity

SPEAKER_01 10:27

or in Canaan. How does that help us as we read these chapters? Uh, do not do as they do.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Well, it's interesting because we often hear the phrase that the the people of Israel were to be lights to the nations, um, or a light to the nations. And in a sense, uh, when we look at Jesus, um, he is a standard by which we are we are judged. We are, God says, um Paul already said, um, you know, be you holy even as I am holy. And Israel was supposed to be the standard by which all the other nations were to judge their own lives. And that I think that says something about the way today we err when we think about my faith is an individual thing, and the way I live my life is an individual thing, because in fact, as a community of believers, as a community of followers of Jesus, we are to be a light to the world. And it was supposed to be that way for Israel. It wasn't good enough just for one Israelite to say, Well, I'm gonna live by the law, the whole thing would have fallen. But actually, God's care is for the whole world, and God was doing what he was doing for the whole world. It wasn't that Israel were the specially chosen nation just to be blessed. They were a specially chosen nation to be a standard, to be that um ruler, that yardstick by which everything else was to be measured. Unfortunately, again, as we said back in uh the earlier studies, the law, when it came, of course, and Paul says this in Romans 4, only brought wrath because we became transgressors. There's no one who can keep it. And so again, we understand God's holiness and our fallenness, but we understand exactly who God is and we understand the way he wants us to live. And it's not until the Messiah comes that he begins, through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, to empower us to actually live that way. So it's not impossible for us today, I think, to begin to make a difference. Um and Israel utterly failed, but I think uh anybody would have personally, because it is such a high standard, but ultimately that that's it is a standard that God requires of us. Be you holy, even as I am holy, be a light to the world around you.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

The standard is so high, and yet and also actually, as you read on it around these chapters in chapter 20, the punishments are quite severe. Yeah. You could even say, I suppose, Paul, I mean, uh that is it a bit harsh to the ears of the modern reader, why was it taken so seriously?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Well, I think the thing is, is that I we need to, because if we're in do not do as they do is so important because if we're in um a culture in which sin is tolerated, we all sort of imbibe that and we think, oh no, it's bad, but you know, it's human. Everyone else is doing it's human. Everyone else is doing it's human.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

It must be okay. It must be okay. They're speeding, I can speak. Yeah, that sort of thing. I won't get caught if they don't.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

But then when we come to something like Leviticus 20, and everything, you know, um disobedience from everything from um disobedience to parents, sexual immorality, everything, uh so many things punished by death or by exile or things like we f we suddenly shocks us and we think, is sin really that serious? Is sin that serious? And it is so important because, in a sense, we need that wake-up call because, of course, there is a final judgment, and the punishment,

Marriage As A Picture Of God’s Covenant

SPEAKER_02 13:40

the ultimate punishment for sin is much more serious than any of these temporal punishments that are in Leviticus 20. There are, you know, we're talking about heaven and hell, judgment, eternal life and death. We're talking about those sorts of issues. So when we come to this, we we learn that the living God will not, he cannot tolerate sin. That's how serious it is. It's not an optional extra that these punishments, it's really serious.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah, and so holiness is not just about individuals avoiding sin. I mean, as John Wesley actually said, uh that there's no holiness except social holiness. Just in a few seconds, that's all we've got left, really. But uh, how do we see that? I think it's Leviticus 19.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I I think we've been saying it over and over again that God is looking at um the people, his people, as a community. And of course, today's modern way of thinking is that everything is individual individualistic, but in fact, God cares and and he judges nations, he sees people in groups, he expects something of the whole. And so, yes, we must be concerned with our own personal life, but we must also be concerned with our the life of our community, whether it's our church, of our society around us, and our nation. And that's why we can't just say this is important or that is important, but we have to have a whole view of our life as connected to to one another. And that also shows God's care and concern because we bear one another's burdens, we bear one another out. God cares about us on the whole, as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

We practice this in our communities. I mean, I as we round off, I think of Paul Blackham and his his parents, his father, who's also called Paul Blackham, living in Tarleton near Preston in West Lancashire. And uh they he is run a fruit and vegetable shop for years. And uh the uh the great deal of the spiritual life of that community revolves around that fruit and veg shop. Now it's run by Paul's sister, Christine and her husband. But when you go in there, there's cabbages and the greenery being sold, but there's also Bibles there, there's tracts, there's sometimes spiritual counselling going on in the corner, sometimes people being prayed for. The whole thing is an integrated whole, that fruit and veg shop. Now, you may not be in a fruit and veg shop situation.

Do Not Do As They Do: Distinctiveness

SPEAKER_01 15:53

What is your situation? We can use that, and we must be what God wants us to be in it. God bless you today.