Leviticus Overview

Leviticus
Written By David Gooding

by David Gooding

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The biblical authors used the literary conventions of their day to convey their message. These included structures and patterns less obvious to us in our modern age. David Gooding brought his expertise in ancient literature to the biblical text, and these study notes represent his thinking about the structure, patterns and thought-flow of Leviticus.

When speaking to groups of Bible students, he often said, ‘When it comes to Bible study, there is structure, pattern and thought-flow, and the greatest of these is thought-flow. Here are the thoughts of God expressed. Our job is to follow the thought-flow.’ He taught that the most important thing to grasp in biblical interpretation is the way the author develops his message, and that discerning structure and patterns within the text should always be directed towards that end.

David Gooding developed these study notes over many years and distributed them at public and private talks. The study notes are not meant to be the last word on the book, and may not cover it entirely. The Myrtlefield Trust offers them to Bible students, preachers and teachers in order to stimulate further thinking about the book, so that its message may be better understood.

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Study Notes

The Central Theme of Leviticus: Holiness

Its Context and Place in the Pentateuch

In Genesis: God calls to Adam and Eve who are hiding in the trees of the garden, ashamed and guilty because of their disobedience and fall (Gen 3).

In Exodus: God calls to Moses out of the bush that burned with fire but was not consumed. He announces the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exod 3:4).

In Leviticus: God calls to Moses out of the tent of meeting, inviting his redeemed people to draw near to worship and serve him (Lev 1:1).

Its Major Topics

  1. The sacrifices necessary in order to approach God; and the priesthood necessary to operate the sacrifices.
  2. The holiness and purity demanded if they are to approach God: they must be holy as he is holy.
  3. The celebration at the yearly set feasts of the Lord of God's redemption and the gift of their inheritance of the land. The conditions for the continued enjoyment of this inheritance.

The Nature of Holiness

  1. Necessarily and healthily negative: separation from uncleanness, defilement and morbidity.
  2. But gloriously positive: complete devotion to God and loving one's neighbour as oneself.
  3. It spells life and freedom: 'I have broken the bars of your yoke, and enabled you to walk with heads held high' (Lev 26:13).

The Offerings of Approach to God: Leviticus 1:1–7:38

  1. Details of the various offerings which the people must bring: these instructions addressed to the people (Lev 1:1–6:7).
  2. The laws of the offerings addressed to the priests, instructing them how to operate this sacrificial system (Lev 6:8–7:36).

Concluding summary: 'This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meal offering, and of the sin offering, and of the guilt offering, and of the consecration, and of the sacrifice of peace offerings; which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai' (Lev 7:37–38).

The Sanctification and Consecration of Aaron and the Priests by Moses in the Presence of the People: Leviticus 8:1–10:20

The institution of the priesthood (Lev 8)

The actual beginning of Aaron's ministry (Lev 9)

  1. The taking of sacrifices by Aaron for himself (Lev 9:1) and by the people for the people (Lev 9:3).
  2. The purpose: 'that the glory of the Lord shall appear to the congregation' (Lev 9:4–6).
  3. The actual offering of the sacrifices at the altar (Lev 9:7–21).
  4. Aaron blesses the people (Lev 9:22).
  5. Moses and Aaron go into the tent of meeting, then come out and together bless the people (9:23).
  6. Climax: the fire of God's approval and acceptance . . . and when all the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces (Lev 9:24).
  7. The fire of God's disapproval (Lev 10): executes two priests for offering strange fire that God had not commanded. The priests not allowed to join in the public mourning (Lev 10:1–7).
  8. Use of alcohol by the priests forbidden when they go into the tent of meeting (Lev 10:8–11).
    • That you may put difference between:
      • The holy and the common.
      • The unclean and the clean.
    • That you may teach the people all God's statutes.
  9. Rules for maintaining the holiness of the parts of the sacrifice eaten by priests (Lev 10:12–15).
  10. Accidental error by the priests in connection with sin-offering (Lev 10:16–20). Moses' rebuke: Aaron's plea accepted.

End of first major part of the book

Regulations for the People in Regard to Clean and Unclean Food: Leviticus 11:1–47

The Reasons Given for these Regulations

  1. I am the Lord your God: therefore sanctify yourselves and be holy for i am holy.
  2. 'For I am the Lord that brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: you shall therefore be holy for I am holy' (Exod 20:2).

The Purpose of Redemption Must not be Compromised

'This is the law of the beast, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps upon the earth: to make a difference between:

  1. The unclean and the clean.
  2. The living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten' (Lev 11:46–47).

Regulations for Bodily Cleanliness and Religious Purity: Leviticus 12:1–17:16

  1. For purification after childbirth (Lev 12).
    • For diagnosis of infectious skin diseases (Lev 13).
    • For treatment of mildew: 'This is the law of the plague of mildew in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or the woof, or anything of skin, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean' (Lev 13:59).
  3. For cleansing from:
    • Infectious skin diseases.
    • Mildew (Lev 14).
    • 'These are the regulations for any infections skin disease, for an itch, for mildew in clothing or in a house, and for a swelling, a rash or a bright spot, to determine when something is clean or unclean. These are the regulations for infectious skin diseases and mildew' (Lev 14:54–57).
  4. For discharges causing uncleanness (Lev 15): 'You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so that they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling-place which is among them' (Lev 15:31–33).
  5. For the cleansing of the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement, from the defilement caused by the uncleannesses, transgressions and sins of the people among whom the tabernacle resided (Lev 16:16) and for the cleansing of the people from all their sins, so that they might be clean before the Lord (Lev 16:30). 'This is to be a lasting ordinance for you. Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites' (Lev 16:34).
  6. For safeguarding the sacred rite of sacrifice from pagan idolatry and superstition; and for maintaining the sanctity of life-blood, the symbol of the cost of atonement.

Israel's Behaviour: Leviticus 18–21

Israel's Behaviour is not to Conform to the Practices of:

  1. Egypt, from which God has delivered them.
  2. Canaan, into which God is about to bring them.

Israel's Behaviour is to be Governed by God's Statutes and Judgments

'I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, for the one who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord' (Lev 18:4–5).

  1. Sexual behaviour (Lev 18):
    • Prohibition of incest and adultery (Lev 18:6–20).
    • Prohibition of child sacrifice to Molech: 'You shall not profane the name of your God: I am the Lord' (Lev 18:21).
    • Prohibition of homosexuality and bestiality (Lev 18:22–23).
    • The Israelites are not to defile themselves and so defile the land. The Canaanites have defiled the land, and the land is now vomiting them out. If the Israelites behave like the Canaanites, the land will vomit them out too (Lev 18:24–30).
  2. General commandments regulating family, religious, social and commercial life (Lev 19). Basic principles:
    • 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy' (Lev 19:2–3, 12, 14, 16, 18, 25, 28, 30–32, 34, 36–37).
    • 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself' (Lev 19:18).
  3. The punishment to be inflicted on:
    • Child sacrifice: 'Sanctify yourselves therefore . . . I am the Lord who sanctifies you' (Lev 20:2–7).
    • Abuse of parents and sexual misdemeanours (Lev 20:8) NB: The long explanation of the reason why God demands a lifestyle different from that of the surrounding nations (Lev 20:22–27):
    • 'I [God] abhorred them' (Lev 20:23).
    • 'I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the nations' (Lev 20:24).
    • 'You shall therefore separate between the clean beast and the unclean . . . which I have separated from you as unclean' (Lev 20:25).
    • 'And you shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the nations that you should be mine' (Lev 20:26).

Regulations for the Maintenance of the Special Holiness of the Priests, and of the Sanctity and Quality of the Sacrifices: Leviticus 21–22

  1. Ordinary priests (Lev 21:1–9):
    • Must not defile themselves for the dead, except for close relatives.
    • Must not disfigure their bodies, hair or beards, nor cut their flesh.
    • Must not marry a prostitute or divorced woman.
    • No priest's daughter may play the harlot.
    • Reason: 'They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God . . . I the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy' (Lev 21:6).
  2. High priest (Lev 21:10–13):
    • Not permitted to dishevel his hair, rend clothes, approach a dead body, go out of, or profane, the sanctuary, at times of bereavement.
    • Must not marry a widow, divorcee or profane woman, but only a virgin.
    • Reasons: The crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: 'I am the Lord' (Lev 21:12). 'I am the Lord who sanctifies him' (Lev 21:15).
  3. Physical defects and blemishes (Lev 21:16–24): these defects barred a priest from approaching the altar to offer sacrifices–though not from partaking of the priest's sacrificial dues.
    • Reason: 'that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them' (Lev 21:23).
  4. Protection of the holiness of things offered to God by the people (Lev 22).
    • No such holy thing may be eaten by anyone when unclean, or by anyone outside the priesthood and their families (Lev 22:1–16).
    • Reason: 'for I am the Lord who sanctifies them' (Lev 22:9, 16).
  5. No substandard or blemished animal to be offered in sacrifice to God (Lev 22:17–25).
  6. God's compassionate limitation on sacrifice:
    • No animal shall be taken and offered to God until the eighth day after birth, but shall be under its dam (Lev 22:27).
    • 'You shall not kill a dam and its young both in one day' (Lev 22:28).
    • Reason: 'You shall not profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the Israelites. I am the Lord who hallow you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord' (Lev 22:32–33).

Regulations for the Celebration of Redemption and for the Enjoyment of their God-Given Inheritance: Leviticus 23–27

  1. The set feasts of the Lord (Lev 23).
  2. Directions for the continual supply of:
    • Oil, to maintain a lamp to burn continually before the Lord (Lev 24:1–4).
    • Flour, to maintain twelve loaves of bread every week on the golden table before the Lord in the tabernacle (Lev 24:5–9).
  3. The penalty to be inflicted:
    • For blaspheming the name of God (Lev 24:10–16).
    • For causing injury or death to man or (someone else's) animal (Lev 24:17–23). 4 Rules for the enjoyment of the harvests of the land and of property (Lev 25):
    • The land to be left fallow one year in seven (Lev 25:1–7).
    • A year of jubilee every fiftieth year:
      • Liberty for everyone to return to his possessions (Lev 25:8–24).
      • Return of land sold because of poverty (Lev 25:25–28).
    • Rules and limitations on the return of buildings (Lev 25:29–34).
    • Prohibition of the exaction of usury from a poor man (Lev 25:35–38)
    • Israelites who are forced by poverty to sell themselves to a rich Israelite, are not to be treated as slaves, but as employees (Lev 25:39–46).
    • Rules for the buying back of a poor Israelite from slavery to a resident alien (Lev 25:47–50).
    • The principles involved: greed is not to be allowed:
      • To abuse and exhaust the fertility of the land.
      • To deprive the poor of a living.
      • To oppress or enslave fellow Israelites.
      • 'For unto me the Israelites are servants; they are my servants whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God' (Lev 25:55).
  4. God's blessings on obedience (Lev 26:1–13):
    • Material property.
    • Victory over enemies.
    • Health and fertility.
    • 'I will set my tabernacle among you' (Lev 26:11).
    • 'I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people' (Lev 26:12).
    • 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and enabled you to walk with heads held high' (Lev 26:13).
  5. God's mounting discipline upon disobedience (Lev 26:14–45):
    • Illness, terror, fruitless harvests, defeat, oppression and subjugation by enemies, drought, plague and pestilence, siege, famine, desolation of land, exile and annihilation among the nations.
    • Yet, if they repent and confess their sins, God will be faithful to the covenant made with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. 'I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord' (Lev 26:45).
  6. Practical matters relating to vows, votive offerings and tithes, all of which are the Lord's property and holy to the Lord (Lev 27).

The Seven Annual Feasts: Leviticus 23:1–11, 15, 16, 21, 23–28, 33–36

The feasts of the Lord were seven feasts that came annually by God\'s appointment for the Israelites. The reading from Leviticus 23 gives us some of their leading facts, and the foregoing chart shows their names and their occasions during the Jewish year.

Passover and Unleavened Bread

  • Passover: 14th day of the first month.
  • Unleavened Bread: 15th day of the first month.

Passover and unleavened bread went together. When passover finished, on the fourteenth day of the first month, Unleavened Bread began immediately on the fifteenth day. They could not be separated. In later Jewish history, these two feasts combined, were often referred to as the feast of Unleavened Bread. They went together in history: the reason the Israelites ate unleavened bread when they came out of Egypt was that they did not have time to make the normal leavened bread since they left in such a hurry. They took their dough mixed up in their rags, and their kneading troughs, and off they went. Thereafter, during the centuries, they celebrated the fact of their hasty exit from Egypt by keeping a feast of unleavened bread for a whole week. For us, there are moral and spiritual, as well as historical points to be learned from these feasts; and the fact that these two stand together, and must never be separated, is significant.

Firstfruits and Pentecost

  • Firstfruits: When the corn was still green a sheaf was presented before the Lord as firstfruits of the coming harvest.
  • Pentecost: Fifty days later two cakes were baked from the new corn and presented before the Lord as firstfruits of the ripened harvest.

The feasts of firstfruits and pentecost were an indeterminate time after passover and unleavened bread. That had to be so, since they were celebrated when the harvest had reached an appropriate stage, which did not occur on the same day each year. Thus, there was a small gap between these two groups of feasts. The two feasts, firstfruits and pentecost, also went together. They had to do with the corn harvest. At firstfruits, when the corn was in the ear and still green, they took a sheaf and presented it before the Lord as firstfruits of the coming harvest. The time of pentecost was determined by the time of firstfruits. It was fifty days later. In the Old Testament it was known as the feast of weeks, whilst its New Testament name is pentecost. The Greek word 'pentecost' means 'the fiftieth day'. On pentecost they also offered an offering of firstfruits—of a different kind from that offered at firstfruits—which took the form of two loaves of bread, since they were then celebrating the ripened harvest of wheat, barley, or some other corn. When they began to cut the harvest, they threshed some of the new corn, ground it into flour and, as a firstfruits offering to God, two cakes were made and offered before the Lord.

Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles

  • Trumpets: The silence was suddenly broken by the blast of trumpets. This was the signal for them to reap the harvest. They had to assemble themselves together and prepare to meet the Lord.
  • The Day of Atonement: The most solemn feast; a day of penitence, examination and confession of sins.
  • Tabernacles: A happy feast for seven days, extended to an eighth day, when they lived in booths and took time to remember how their ancestors had come out of Egypt and had lived in tents as they journeyed to their inheritance.

Then there was a long gap with no feasts at all, until in the second half of the year, there were three feasts all hustled together in the seventh month, with only a fortnight between them. These three feasts had to do with the grape harvest. At trumpets, the priests got out their trumpets of various kinds, and blew fast on them. Then came the great feast of 'the day of atonement', familiar now as never before, since in 1971, the Egyptians took the opportunity of this feast, the Yom Kippur, to attack Israel. There was the final biblical feast a few days later, the lovely, happy feast of tabernacles, which lasted for seven days, and was so good that they used to extend it to an eighth day. That was very like how we feel when we have had a glorious holiday, and do not know whether we should go back to work on the following Monday, so we take it off as a holiday as well.

Firstfruits and pentecost go together. They are concerned with the corn harvest, which occurs early in Israel\'s year, in May or June, and not as our corn harvest, in the Autumn. Trumpets, the day of atonement and tabernacles go together. They are concerned with the grape harvest, which happens in the autumn.

In Israel\'s mind, the first two feasts passover and unleavened bread were connected with their deliverance from Egypt: the Passover delivered them, and the unleavened bread was the inevitable and natural consequence. They were concerned with Israel\'s history, coming out of the land. The remainder of the feasts, at the two harvests of corn and grapes, were concerned with the reaping of the harvest of their inheritance in the land that they had been brought to. They had to do with 'When you come into the land which I give unto you ...'.

There were, and still are, feasts among the Jews, which are not included amongst these seven. They are not mentioned in the early part of the Old Testament. Purim is mentioned in the book Esther, and dedication in 1 Maccabees and John 10.

The Timetable of the Feasts of the Lord: Leviticus 23

Deliverance from Egypt Reaping the Harvest of the Land
First month, fourteenth day = Passover

First month, fifteenth day to twenty-first day = Unleavened Bread



Celebrating deliverance from Egypt 		Firstfruits (Sheaf)
¯
50 days
¯
Pentecost (Firstfruits = Loaves)

Corn Harvest
gap 		Seventh month, first day = Trumpets

Seventh month, tenth day = The Day of Atonement

Seventh month, fifteenth day to twenty-second day = Tabernacles

Grape Harvest
 
David Gooding
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