Books of the Bible

The Book of Leviticus

Old Testament · The Law · Genre: Law · Author: Traditionally Moses · Chapters: 27

Leviticus is a manual of worship and holiness, given so that a sinful people could live in the presence of a holy God. Its sacrifices, feasts, and laws all press home one tender and searching question: how can people who fall short come near to God, and stay near, without being consumed.

Start reading: Leviticus chapter 1

A key verse

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.Leviticus 19:18 (KJV)

The setting and background of Leviticus

Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch, named for the Levites, the tribe from which Israel's priests were drawn, though its concern is the worship and holiness of the whole nation. It picks up directly from the end of Exodus, with the tabernacle newly built and God's glory filling it, and it consists largely of instructions God speaks to Moses from the tent of meeting. Tradition ascribes it, with the rest of the Law, to Moses.

The book is arranged around the question of how a sinful people can live near a holy God. Its first half sets out the sacrificial system and the priesthood, its center is the Day of Atonement, and its second half, sometimes called the holiness code, extends holiness from the sanctuary into every corner of daily life. The refrain, be holy for I am holy, ties ritual and ethics together into a single vision.

Leviticus can seem remote to modern readers, but it supplies the vocabulary the whole Bible uses for sin, sacrifice, atonement, priesthood, and holiness. Without it, the cross cannot be fully understood. In the sweep of Scripture its offerings and its great Day of Atonement stand as shadows of the reality that arrives in Christ, and its command to love the neighbor becomes central to the teaching of Jesus.

The story and structure of Leviticus

Leviticus picks up where Exodus ends, with God's glory filling the newly built tabernacle. The immediate question is practical and profound: now that the holy God dwells in the middle of the camp, how can a sinful people approach him and live? The whole book is God's gracious answer, spoken from the tent of meeting.

The opening chapters lay out the system of offerings, the God-given way for sin to be covered and fellowship restored. There are burnt offerings of total surrender, peace offerings of fellowship, and sin and guilt offerings for wrongs done, each teaching that sin is costly and that God provides the means of atonement rather than leaving his people in their guilt.

Next comes the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests, the mediators who stand between God and the people. The sobering account of Nadab and Abihu, struck down for offering unauthorized fire, underlines that the holy God cannot be approached casually or on human terms, but only in the way he has appointed.

At the center of the book stands the Day of Atonement, the one day each year when the high priest entered the holiest place with blood, and a scapegoat carried the people's sins away into the wilderness. It is the beating heart of the book, a yearly enactment of the truth that sin must be borne away for the people to remain in God's presence.

The later chapters turn from the sanctuary to daily life, calling Israel to reflect God's own character in food, family, honesty, justice, sexuality, and rest, and setting out the sacred calendar of feasts. The refrain that ties it all together is God's own reason for it all: be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

The great themes of Leviticus

Key passages in Leviticus

Leviticus in the sweep of Scripture

Leviticus can feel remote, yet it supplies the vocabulary the whole Bible uses to speak of sin, sacrifice, priesthood, and holiness. Without it, the cross cannot be fully understood. The New Testament, and especially the letter to the Hebrews, reads the offerings, the priesthood, and the Day of Atonement as shadows of the reality that arrives in Christ. The command to love your neighbor as yourself, spoken here, becomes central to the teaching of Jesus, so that this ancient book of ritual holds the seed of the greatest commandments.

Where Christ is in Leviticus

Every sacrifice in Leviticus and the whole work of the high priest foreshadow Jesus, who is both the perfect priest and the final, once-for-all offering. Where the blood of bulls and goats could only cover sin for a time, his blood takes it away forever, opening the way into God's presence that Leviticus could only point toward. The Day of Atonement, with its blood carried into the holiest place and its scapegoat bearing sins into the wilderness, finds its fulfillment in the one who bore our sins in his own body and carried them away for good.

How to read Leviticus well

Read Leviticus slowly, asking of each ritual what it reveals about sin, holiness, and grace, rather than rushing past it as strange. Let its seriousness about sin deepen your wonder at the cross that fulfilled it, and let its refrain, be holy for I am holy, remind you that God's aim is not only to forgive you but to make you like himself. Notice how the pursuit of holiness reaches beyond worship into justice, honesty, and love of neighbor, and hear in every altar a mercy: God so wants to dwell with his people that he provides in detail for their guilt to be dealt with.

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