The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God warns the priests to guard how they handle the holy things. If a priest was ceremonially unclean, from a discharge, from touching a dead body, from any defilement, he was not to come near the holy food "until he be clean," on pain of being cut off. They were to "separate themselves from the holy things" whenever they were unclean, "and that they profane not my holy name." The sacred was not to be touched carelessly by unclean hands. Reverence was not optional; to treat holy things as common was to profane the very name of God. And once more the chapter grounds it in grace: "I the LORD do sanctify them." The God who gave them holy things to handle was the God who made them holy to handle them.

Gospel Focus

God is jealous for the reverent handling of holy things, and the principle carries straight to us. We now handle the holiest things of all, the word of God, the name of Jesus, the gospel, the Lord's table, and we are warned not to treat them as common. Paul cautions that whoever eats the Lord's bread "unworthily," without "discerning the Lord's body," eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Corinthians 11:29). Familiarity can breed carelessness; we can grow so used to holy things that we cease to tremble at them. But God has not changed. The name of Jesus, the blood of the covenant, the presence of the Spirit, these are not to be handled with unclean hands or casual hearts. Come to the holy things cleansed, reverent, and in awe. And take comfort in the same grace given the priests: it is "the LORD which sanctify" us who makes us fit to draw near. Reverence and grace belong together; we handle the holy with awe, and we are made holy by Him.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God sets who may eat the holy food. "There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing," nor a guest or a hired servant passing through, for they did not belong to the priestly family. But two kinds of people could eat: one "bought with his money," a servant purchased into the household, and "he that is born in his house." Whether by purchase or by birth, these belonged to the priest and so shared his holy portion. A priest's daughter who married outside the priestly line lost the right, but if she was widowed or divorced and returned to her father's house, she could eat again. The principle is simple and clear: the holy food was for those who belonged to the household. Belonging, not merely being nearby, was what gave a person a place at the table.

Gospel Focus

The two ways a person could eat the holy food are a beautiful picture of how we come to belong to God, for we enter His household in exactly these two ways: bought, and born. We are bought, "ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20), redeemed by the blood of Jesus out of slavery to sin into the family of God. And we are born, given "power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12), born again into His household by the Spirit. Purchased and born, both are true of every believer, and both make us members of the family who may eat at the table of God. The stranger and the hired servant, those merely near the holy things without belonging to the family, had no share. This warns against a nearness to holy things that is not true belonging: to hang about the edges of God's people without being bought by His blood and born of His Spirit is to remain a stranger at the feast. But to all who are His, redeemed and reborn, the holy food is freely given. If you have been bought and born, you belong, and the table is yours.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God is exacting about the quality of what is offered to Him. Whether a vow or a freewill gift, the animal was to be "a male without blemish"; "whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you." Blind, broken, maimed, or diseased animals were forbidden; the offering was to "be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein." Even an animal bought from a foreigner with hidden corruption was not to be brought. God would not accept the second-rate, the damaged, the thing a person did not really want anyway. To give God a blemished animal was to say His worship was worth only our leftovers. The offering He accepted had to cost something and had to be the best, whole and without flaw, a fitting gift for a holy God.

Gospel Focus

The demand for an unblemished offering points, first and highest, to Jesus Christ, the one truly perfect sacrifice, "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). Every flawless animal on Israel's altar was a shadow of Him; only He was without any blemish, and only His offering was fully "accepted" for us. But the command also searches our own giving. God still will not be honored with our damaged goods. Centuries later Israel fell into offering the blind and the lame, and God rebuked them sharply: "if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?" (Malachi 1:8). It is easy to give God the tired end of our energy, the leftover money, the spare minutes, the things we did not really want anyway, and call it worship. But He asks for the best. Paul lifts it to its highest: "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1). Give God not your blemished leftovers but your best and your all, in response to the perfect offering He has already given for you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter ends with laws that quietly reveal the tenderness of God. A newborn animal was to stay with its mother seven days before it could be offered; a cow or ewe was not to be killed together with its young "in one day"; and a thanksgiving offering was to be eaten the same day, none left over. Woven among the ritual is a real compassion, even for the beasts and their young. Then God gathers it all into the closing charge: "keep my commandments, and do them... Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, that brought you out of the land of Egypt." His people were to hallow His name, and the ground of it was that He had redeemed them and He was the one making them holy. Redemption, holiness, and reverence all come together in the God who brought them out of Egypt to be His own.

Gospel Focus

Two things shine at the close of this chapter. First, the compassion of God, even the animal laws breathe a mercy that runs through all His works, for "his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalm 145:9). The God of Leviticus is not a cold lawgiver but a tender Father whose holiness and mercy are never at odds. Second, and most precious, is the refrain "I am the LORD which hallow you." Our holiness is not our own achievement; it is God's own work in us. He is "hallowed" among His people, treated as holy, precisely as He hallows them, makes them holy. This is the settled comfort of the whole book: God commands holiness, and God supplies it. He brought us out of our Egypt not to leave us struggling to sanctify ourselves, but to be the LORD who sanctifies us. So we revere His name, we hallow Him in our lives, and we rest in the truth that the holiness He requires He also works, for He is the LORD which hallows His people, that they should be His.