Leviticus

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We are now moving into our lecture on the book of Leviticus, the third book in the Pentateuch. It's Hebrew name is [Hebrew 00:00:20], which just means the simply, "And he," that is, Yahweh, "called or proclaimed." Again, it's the first word in the book. We call it Leviticus in English because it deals with the stuff pertaining to the Levites. All right? So this book is going to be a lot about worship and sacrifices and Levitical service, so that's why we call it Leviticus. But in Hebrew it just means, "And he called." And again, notice that in Hebrew, it begins with word "and," and it's connecting it back to the previous two books. Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus, we've got one united narrative sequence that really is going to go all the way from Genesis to Second Kings. Right? And that's the big history section that we're in right now.

Speaker 2 (00:58):

There's no narrative progression in the book of Leviticus. We've kind of come to a halt, right? Israel is now camped at Sinai for about one year, and this single year began in Exodus 19. So they came out of Egypt, wandered in the wilderness, camped at Sinai, had the Massah Meribah event, appointed 70 elders. Now Moses is up on the mountain and they're going to be there for a year, kind of getting the covenant started. So from Exodus 19 all the way to Numbers 10, Israel's camped at the base of Sinai. All right?

Speaker 2 (01:34):

Now, if you think about that, that's a pretty amazing number. That's a pretty amazing number. It's called narrative focus, in terms of time stamping, right? Think of how much time the book of Genesis covers, from the creation all the way down to when Israel went into Egypt, the 70 members of Jacob's family there. And then you've got covered in Exodus, some 80 years, right? You've got Moses' first 40 years in Egypt and his second 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Right? And now we've got a one year halt, so this is an important year. Yahweh on Sinai arranging, organizing, administering his kingdom in this theocratic moment. Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:16):

The purpose of Leviticus is to promote the holiness of God's people. So when you think about Leviticus, think about it as being the book of holiness, okay? The priests mediate the presence of God, and the sacrificial system does two things. It atones for our covered sin, and it provides the means of fellowship or communion with God. This system has both positive and negative aspects to it, right? You've got to sacrifice for sin, confess your sin, get your sins forgiven, but then you have fellowship with God subsequent to that. Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:51):

The book of Exodus laid the foundation for the biblical theme of divine presence, that we saw. The book of Leviticus provides the system that allows or permits a holy God to dwell in the midst of an unholy or unclean people. Right? How can we purify, sanctify the people so that when God gets into their midst, he doesn't consume them? Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:15):

In terms of genre, we have law or legislation is the largest part of the book of Leviticus. There's just some limited historical narrative. So we've got probably the least amount of narrative in Leviticus than Genesis, Exodus, Numbers or Deuteronomy. All right? It's mostly about Levitical instruction. Okay? In terms of outline and contents, we can see that there is perhaps a chiastic structure here, A, B, C, D, sin or day of atonement. Then coming back out, C, B, A. This is suggested by Michael Morales, who has a book called Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? It's what I would consider the best biblical theological treatment of the book of Leviticus currently out there. It's excellent. So Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? You should get that. Okay?

Speaker 2 (04:07):

So it begins with describing some sacrifices, like guilt offering, sin offering, we'll come back and do that. We talk about the institution of the priesthood, the clean, unclean in daily life, and the day of atonement. Coming back out, holy and profane things in daily life, legislation for the priesthood, mirroring the institution for the priesthood and festivals and sacred time, and then sacrifices that relate to them.

Speaker 2 (04:32):

So you can see that there's an intentional literary design behind this. And some people would think like, "Oh, this has all been messed up and redacted. Why don't we just put institution of priesthood and legislation of priesthood together?" That would be what we would think about doing in our brains. "And let's talk about clean and unclean and holy and profane together." Right? But the ancient narrative mindset didn't like to do it that way. They liked to do part of it, pause, do another part. Do part of it, pause, and do another part and then come back to it. And that's one of the ways in which they created this chiastic arrangement that helps us to know when the book begins and when it ends and what maybe is the focus of it all, the day of atonement. This is the one day each year that the high priest can go into the holy of holies to have Israel's sins forgiven, and to be in God's presence. Okay? This is the day of days. It's the high point of the year.

Speaker 2 (05:22):

So let's talk about then chapters one through seven, the sacrificial system, the sacrificial system. There are five offerings that occur in the sacrificial system that they institute here, five offerings. There's the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. I'll tell you a little bit about each one of those. Okay?

Speaker 2 (05:46):

The sacrificial system, the burnt offering. The burnt offering is a sacrifice that offers atonement for sin. Okay? The animal is killed and totally consumed by a fire, since it represents the sinner who needs to restore his relationship with God. The worshiper identifies with the animal by laying his hands on its head before it's killed. So there's like a transfer, right? You say, "I should be like this animal. The animal's acting as my substitute." And they slay the animal instead of slaying you.

Speaker 2 (06:16):

And then it's completely offered up as a whole burnt offering. You get none of it back. Some offerings you get back. This is the same type of offering that Abraham was told to offer as Isaac, so he was going to offer him all up, or that Jephthah did when he vowed to offer up whatever came out of his house as a whole burnt offering. So that's the same. It's the same one. The offering in Hebrew is called an [Hebrew 00:06:35]. It just means, "that which goes up," because you get none of it back. They just say it's a whole going up offering or a whole burnt offering. That's the way it works, the whole burnt offering.

Speaker 2 (06:45):

The second offering is the grain offering, the grain offering. The grain offering is also listed as a gift or tribute offering because the Hebrew term for this grain offering actually means gift. Okay? It's called [Hebrew 00:06:58], which is a gift offering or a grain offering. The grain offering may be uncooked or cooked in various forms. A portion of the grain is taken and mixed with incense and burned as a gift to God. The rest is given to the priests. So the whole burnt offering, no one gets any of it. The grain offering, some of it gets offered up, but the rest of it goes to the priests and that's how they make their income. Right? In fact, that's how the tithe worked, right? The tithe was to pay the wages of the Levitical system. And so the priest got 10%, and then Aaron got 10% of that or 1%. So all burnt up, partially burnt up. The rest goes to the priest.

Speaker 2 (07:33):

The peace offering. The peace offering is not like the burnt offering. You've heard the word Shalom. Okay? This is [Hebrew 00:07:41], so it's a form of that. It's a Shalom or a peace offering. As opposed to the burnt offering, only part of the animal is burned on the altar to God. The rest is enjoyed by the worshipers themselves in the context of fellowship. Okay? Sometimes called a fellowship offering, because it is designed to promote communion with God. Okay? And this is what many of the tithing rituals involve in Deuteronomy, so that you may rejoice before your God. So you take your 10%, you take it to the temple. Some goes to the priests, but the rest of it, you party with God using that stuff. That's what it was for. And it was to actually to gladden or to cause you to rejoice in the Lord. That's what it's for.

Speaker 2 (08:21):

So that's the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering. You can also call the peace offering a fellowship offering because there it was, think of it like communion. You're there to eat and commune with God. It's a meal with him and it's a covenant meal. And you only eat with those in which you're in covenant with, right? You don't eat with the enemy.

Speaker 2 (08:41):

The sin offering. The sin offering is connected in large part to infractions of ritual purity, and therefore is sometimes understood to be a purification offering or a purification ritual. When you become unclean, let's say you touch a leper, let's say like a scab or something wrong with your skin. Or you just become unclean somehow. You touch a dead body, that kind of thing. You need to offer a sin offering so that you're ritually pure again and you can go in and worship. That's what that's for. Okay?

Speaker 2 (09:10):

And then finally, the guilt offering. The guilt offering involves a violation of any of the Lord's holy things. Okay? It also appears to be the one able to put a monetary value on sin, since restitution is part of the penalty. So you have to pay for it plus 20%. For this reason, the sacrifice is sometimes called a reparation offering. So let's say you do something wrong. Let's say the sin would be, I would steal someone's 10 ounces of oil. I have to restore that plus 20%. So it's a restitution offering to clear your guilt. Okay?

Speaker 2 (09:47):

Now the reason they have these offerings, all of them, is for two reasons. It's, one, is to promote your cleanness or ritual purity, both internally and externally, right? For the guilt one and stuff. But also then to allow you to have fellowship with God and be in his presence and worship. You cannot approach the Lord in any unclean state, either internally or externally. And so these are our means of promoting cleanness, temporary typological, right? The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin really. It just does so symbolically. You are symbolically recognizing that you need something greater than what you have. Okay? That you're not worthy. That's what those are, the sacrifices. Okay. And we're going to see those return down here.

Speaker 2 (10:35):

The institution of the priesthood. In Leviticus eight through 10, the installation of the priest. This is where Aaron and his sons are set apart for service in the holy place. They're given priestly garments and anointed with oil in order to identify them with the tabernacle and to set them apart in the presence of God. They offer sacrifices to atone for sins. This section also includes the tragic story of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, who offer unauthorized or strange fire before the Lord. They approach him in an unworthy or an unsolicited fashion. God responds by consuming them with fire, thus serving as a warning of the dangers of the priesthood and of approaching God in an unworthy manner, either in the way in which you're not invited or in a way in which he's not instructed you to do.

Speaker 2 (11:20):

Next, we come to, let's see, 11 through 15, the clean and unclean things in daily life. So this would include bodily discharges, things you come in contact, what food you eat, childbirth, leprosy and bodily discharges. Those are the categories. You say, "All the gross things in life." Because you got to remember back then, cooking involved slaughtering. Does that make sense? And so you would come in contact with a lot of bad stuff. I'm so thankful I live in the day of grocery stores. I don't know how they did it a hundred years ago.

Speaker 2 (11:53):

So in this section, things that make you impure, things that require you to have sin offerings or guilt offerings and stuff like that. That's what this section is, 11 through 15. And this leads up to the day of atonement, the day of atonement. We're going to come back and talk about the day of atonement, so I'll skip that. And then we come back down here to holy and profane things in daily life, where we have things like sacrifices, consumption of blood, sexual behavior, civil and religious life, priests, holy things, offerings, feasts, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (12:28):

This is where you'll get things like, this has a lot to do with sexual purity here. These are the things you... It's a weird way to say it. These are the kind of sexual activities that are not permitted, like union with a sister, union with a cousin, union with a parent, union with an in-law, all the aberrant things that are outside of the design of the Genesis chapter two male, female, one flesh relationship. God is saying, "Just in case you didn't get me the first time in Genesis two, I'm going to give you a whole lot of things." It's a tough section to read, and a lot of euphemistic language in there as well. Like they won't even say maternal incest, because it so abhorant to them. So they just say, "uncovering the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother." And that's euphemistic. Even the Bible draws a line, even talking about it in a particular way. Okay?

Speaker 2 (13:26):

And then we go back to the legislation for the priests and the festivals, but really the big thing here is the day of atonement, the day of atonement. Okay? What is the day of atonement? Or we know it more popularly today as Yom Kippur. Yom means day, Kippur means atonement. So day of atonement, okay? This is the day. This day is the only time anyone can enter the holy of holies. And it can only be the high priest for the purpose of purifying, one, the holy place from the accumulation of sins of the year. It's like the holy of holies, the outer court just wells up with sin, with sin, with sin, with sin. And once a year, the high priest has to go in and office sacrifices to flush it all out. Okay?

Speaker 2 (14:09):

These sins are seen as being carried off by the scapegoat that is driven out into the wilderness. So here's what happens. There's two goats. One, you lay your hands on, lay all the sins of the people on, and you send it out to the wilderness. The other one, you take it in and you sacrifice it and use that to purify the holy of holies. And it can only be done once a year. And that was really the high point of the year, because it was the way in which it typified Israel's ultimate desire was to be in a communion of God and in that holy place. Right? And it's the place that we long to be. It's the center of the universe. And it's the place that Jesus gives access to in the true temple.

Speaker 2 (14:48):

Because remember all of this is just a copy of something greater, a shadow, a pattern. And if you want to understand why all of this is important, because what this is all saying is, "How can I have access to the divine presence, which means satisfaction and joy and pleasure forever more, without being consumed?" And it's going to require a priest to intercede on your behalf and to get God's access to you somehow. And it's going to require sacrifices because you're a sinner and so you're permanently unclean. Okay? What this points to is we already know in the language of this course, that Jesus is the better tabernacle. Jesus is the better priest. Jesus is the better scapegoat. Does that make sense? And so the best place to look at this because of time, we don't have time to do everything, is to go to Hebrews nine and 10, Hebrews nine and 10.

Speaker 2 (15:53):

Before I begin there, let me just show you. In Hebrews nine and 10, they're going to talk about the day of atonement and what that means. But let me just read to you explicitly Leviticus 16:21 and 22, and then Leviticus 16:16, because that's what tells us the method of atonement and then the purpose of atonement. So let's begin with the method of atonement in Leviticus 16:21. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the inequities of the people and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall purify them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness, by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all of the in inequities on itself to a remote area and he shall let the goat go free into the wilderness." Which the wilderness is like the place of the demons and the all the bad things. Okay? That's the method.

Speaker 2 (16:50):

Here's the purpose. In verse 16 of Leviticus 16, "Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness." Verse 30, "For on this day, shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins." In a temporary typological fashion, just so you know. Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:21):

Now the author of Hebrews in nine and 10, I'm going to read you. I wish I could read to you all of it, but I'm going to read to you bits of it. Okay? And then we'll talk about the other thing that's important besides holiness in Leviticus. Okay. So here I'm going to begin in Hebrews chapter nine and they're going to paint the context for us, where it's going to be talking about a contrast between the old covenant in Leviticus and the new covenant sacrifice in the New Testament. Okay?

Speaker 2 (17:48):

Where he says, the author, "Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness." Do you see how he's talking about this? "For a tent was prepared, the first section in which where the lamp stand and the table and the bread of presence, it is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place," so concentric degrees of holiness. The closer you get to the center, the more holy it is. "And it had the golden altar of incense, the Ark of the Covenant, covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manana and Aaron's staff," et cetera.

Speaker 2 (18:24):

9:6, "These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their duties. But in the second, only the high priest goes, but he only once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people, by which the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet open as long as the first section is still standing." Listen to this in verse nine, "which is symbolic for the present age." So we're blocked from going to that holy place because of this present age. "According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper." See the problem? "But deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of the reformation." So they're talking about this being a temporary typological institution, and the problem is it can't fix the conscience of the person. We need something that can actually free us from guilt, right? Not just cover us over from it.

Speaker 2 (19:27):

Well, how does that happen? Well, 9:11 happens, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, the one not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. He entered once for all into the holy of places, not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption." 14, "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Now notice this in 15, "Therefore he is the mediator," that's what the priest is doing, "of a new covenant. So that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant," that is, the Mosaic covenant. Got to get those covenants right.

Speaker 2 (20:19):

Now, watch this language here that's going to relate the earthly tabernacle to the heavenly tabernacle temple. "Indeed, under the law," that is what we're listening to in Leviticus, "almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."

Speaker 2 (20:59):

Now this is one reason why I'm so opposed to this phenomenon that goes on where we're trying to reinstitute the temple in Jerusalem or reinstitute the sacrificial system in Jerusalem, that got red heifers on the ready to go. There's a big movement in that. I strongly oppose that movement because that was only a temporary typological picture of a heavenly reality where it says, "pattern, copy, old," right? And Christ has entered into the non pattern, the non copy, the non old, and offered the sacrifice that was originally intended. So to want or desire that particular thing reestablished on earth is to deny the full and finished work of Christ. And that is not a good thing, right? So because, look, "For Christ entered into a holy place not made with human hands," because they were copies, "nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest into the holy place every year," right? "For then Christ have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world, but as it is, he's appeared once for all at the end of the age, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Speaker 2 (22:08):

I want to concentrate that statement. Once for all, right? That means we don't need any other sacrifices, any other priesthood, any other work. The word is [Greek 00:22:18] in Greek. It is finished. All right? Jesus' words on the cross. Chapter 10, at the beginning, then we're done. "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near." Okay?

Speaker 2 (22:41):

This is a really important part and concept for me. You need to understand that the Mosaic administration from Exodus to Deuteronomy is an important administration because it's a shadow of the good things to come, right? And so we study it and learn from it, because it actually points to and tells us and shows us good things to come. But when you make a good thing, the ultimate thing, it will crush us. And that's what an idol is, when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing. And so we don't want to make an idol out of the Mosaic covenant, in some sense. We want to make sure that we've got room for it to give way to the substance that comes in the new covenant, both in the first and second coming.

Speaker 2 (23:16):

So we've got to be careful in our theological arrangements that we don't see different epics and eras in terms of how God deals with his people. We see one continuous covenant of grace and different administrations that are shadow and substance, one pointing to the other, not in contradictory forms, but in actually substantive ways and in the true ways. So that's why I'm looking at these, is I'm looking at the highlighted words in my notes: "new covenant, first covenant, copy, copy, shadow, true form." Do you see? In the text I was reading, there's all these key words that are old and new, first and second, copy shadow, true.

Speaker 2 (23:53):

And so we've got to keep that in our mind that when we're reading Exodus to Deuteronomy, we're seeing a picture. Let's put it this way. We don't know really what life was like in Eden because it's a very short narrative. So God is in some sense giving us a bigger picture of what Eden should have looked like. So in Leviticus, the tabernacle was built. They have it in the middle. God's in it. And then they station all the people around it, right? And then they put the priests in the right places. And it looks like paradise out there, in the way it's gone from chaos to cosmos. And God has taken that and he's made a new garden of Eden event, with him dwelling in the middle of it. And that's why you can't offer strange fire without getting consumed by it. Okay?

Speaker 2 (24:34):

So that's the theology of sacrifice that permeates this book, but it's the theology that we're not trying to reinstitute at all. It's gone and done, but it points us to the person and work of Christ. Because Christ will be the true and better sacrifice. He'll be the true and better priest. He won't need to offer a sacrifice for himself to be clean. He already will be clean. So the sacrifice he offers is on our behalf. He's the only one worthy to do that.

Speaker 2 (24:56):

Okay. The second major theme that is in the book of Leviticus is the love your neighbor theme, right? I really like this, the love your neighbor theme, which is really a major part of the Decalogue. There are 10 commandments that we're going to cover more in Deuteronomy, right? The first part is how do you love and worship God in the right way? And the second part is, how do you love your neighbor as yourself? Well, you honor your father and mother, you don't lie, cheat, steal, right? And don't covet, all that kind of business, murder. And so this we're into that section.

Speaker 2 (25:25):

So a major theme in the book of Leviticus is love your neighbor. And so Leviticus 19:18, for example, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh." Right? That's so great. Leviticus, 19:18, "You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." That's very applicable to the context of the church, right? "You shall not take vengeance on or bear grudges against those in the kingdom of God, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Right?

Speaker 2 (26:01):

Not only shall you love your own people, the sons of your own people, Leviticus 19:18, it also says in Leviticus 19:34, "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as a native among you." That is a radical statement there. "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself." Why? "For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your God." I love how he punctuates it that way. And this is me saying that, that formula right there.

Speaker 2 (26:34):

And so we have Jesus commenting on this in Mark 12:29 to 31, "Jesus answered and said," asking about the most important of the laws and stuff like that, "'The most important is this: Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one.'" Or you could say, "The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you shall love Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is this, you shall love the neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these," which is a summary of the Decalogue right? Love God as hard as you can and love your neighbor as hard as you can. And in these, all the law and the prophets are summarized, right? So union with the father, the source of the image, right? And love for the image itself, your fellow men and women. Okay?

Speaker 2 (27:19):

So those are the two main themes that I like to highlight in the book of Leviticus, holiness, right? How do you dwell in God's presence and not be consumed? And then loving the neighbor, how are you to treat everyone around you, and why is that? Because you were once aliens and strangers. You were once... And you think about this, forgiveness. How can you not forgive someone who offends you, in light of the fact of how much you've been forgiven by the Lord? Whatever you've been wronged in this life is nothing compared to the wrong that he bore on your behalf. And so you can say, "No big deal."

Speaker 2 (27:49):

The book of Leviticus is the gospel promised beforehand in these ways, Jesus is the true and better priest and even high priest, right? So Hebrews 4:14, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who knew every aspect or respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find help in the time of need."

Speaker 2 (28:25):

Do you see the difference there? "Yet without sin." The high priests had to offer sacrifice for their own sins. Jesus did not. Jesus is the true and better sacrifice, right? Not like the blood of sheeps and goats that had to be offered over and over again. Right? But the once for all sacrifice. Hebrews 7:26, "For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, then for those of the people, since he did this once for all, when he offered himself up. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than law, appoints a son who's been made perfect forever."

Speaker 2 (29:14):

And all of that weight is born by one person, all out here. Jesus is the true and better holiness. This is interesting. Jesus is the true and better holiness. This is something that we see in the gospels, and I like to point this out. In this time, if I were to touch a leper or if I were to touch a dead body, or if I were to have some kind of skin discharge, bodily discharge, I would be considered unclean. All right? And if I touched anyone in that way, their uncleanness would transfer to me, right? The transfer is from the unclean to the clean, right? No human ever came and touched the unclean and made it clean until Jesus showed up. It reverses the trend. This one person, it's like a miracle every time.

Speaker 2 (30:00):

For example, Matthew 11:5, "When the blind received their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." Remember when Jesus puts his hand in the mud and spits on it, and rubs it in his eyes and the guy sees? He's the potter shaping the clay. He's transferring. He's taking their uncleanness and making it clean.

Speaker 2 (30:24):

Or do you remember the woman who had the discharge, in Mark 5:24 to 29? "A large crowd followed and pressed around him and a woman there, who'd been a subject of bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak," which would've made him unclean, because he saw her. "'If I just touch his clothes, I'll be healed immediately.' Her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering." So her uncleanness is reversed by touching that which can never be made unclean.

Speaker 2 (31:00):

And so you can see that Jesus is our true and better high priest. He's our true and better sacrifice. And he's our true and better cleanness, our holiness. All right. That's the end of Leviticus lecture in 33 minutes and four seconds, just what I try to stipulate for. And so I'll take any questions at this time about clean, unclean, feasts, festivals, sacrifices, and holiness.

Speaker 3 (31:26):

So would you say that the theme of reaching out to the whole world that is alluded to in the Abrahamic covenant is included all throughout scripture? Because in Leviticus you have how you treat the foreigners and even in Christ's ministry, he goes to the place east of the Jordan. And so it doesn't just start with-

Speaker 2 (31:51):

And Ruth, the Moabite, and Rahab, the Canaanite. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:55):

It doesn't just start with Acts, with the Jerusalem, Judea thing. It's starting out right from creation.

Speaker 2 (32:02):

Yeah. But the interesting thing about the Old Testament is that the nations are supposed to stream to Jerusalem in order for them to bear witness to that. Does that make sense? So Jerusalem is to be like a light shining on a hill, right? But in the New Testament, it's not a coming into Jerusalem, but it's a going out of Jerusalem, the gospel being proclaimed from Jerusalem, Judea, to the outermost parts of the world. So it's different directionally, but it's the same concept. Right? But instead of coming to Jerusalem, here's the thing, Jerusalem's coming to you. And that's the good news of the gospel, right? It's not hidden from you anymore. It's streaming out towards you. That's a great question.

Speaker 4 (32:44):

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