My memory of how the Bible was formed is that some big councils met and decided which books deserved to be in and which ought to be excluded. Is it possible there was human error in the process?…
All I can say is that they must have voted on Leviticus at end of a night on the grog!
I recently finished reading the Bible thru and have started over, but for the last few days I have been reading this book and genuinely wondering why do we need to have this today?…
I sometimes find myself wondering about the content of the Bible and why God (my assumption is that he was able to direct the councils) would allow some stuff to be ‘in’ and other stuff ‘out’.
I know a friend recently preached about 12 weeks in a row on this book and I’d love to hear what he has to say because right now I think I would be about as well off reading the phone book.
Anyway… a late night rant!
Heh.
Leviticus ROCKS. The key issues are to understand Leviticus as part of the narrative that starts at the end of Exodus and continues to the early parts of Numbers.
Once you get Leviticus parts of the gospels make more sense and you understand how Jesus is our high priest, and atoning sacrifice etc etc.
The danger is to see every part of Leviticus as a Christological reference even though it is arguably the most Christological book in the OT.
A nice easy intro for the total novice (maybe not you, but say for study groups) is
Immanuel in Our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship (Gospel According to the Old Testament)
Yeah it’s P&R but this particular one isn’t hyper Calvinist 😉 and while its coverage is a bit patchy, and doesn’t put Leviticus into the larger narrative framework, it’s short, easy to read and accessible.
Oh and it covers more than just Leviticus.
Leviticus is one of my favourite books in the Bible and I always get excited when I reach it again in my reading plans. (But, yes I do agree that some parts of leviticus are burdensome to read and I do gloss over them quickly – it’s more the overarching theme of Leviticus that I love).
From what I understand, Leviticus is the first book that Jewish children must learn off by heart in their education, as it sets the theme for all the other study they will do with the OT.
I’m in line with saint’s comment. After reading leviticus a few times, I began to see parts of the Gospels in a new light.
Early church councils discussed which books would be included in the NT, but the OT was the bible of the Israelites. Although there was some contention about what got counted (eg Apocrypha), the Pentateuch is hard to leave out, with Jesus and the apostles quoting it.
This seems like a good argument for the Christian story: Though one can argue that the Church just chose books for the NT that supported their views, we didn’t choose the OT, we inherited it from the Jews. Specifically, the snippets that point to Jesus, we didn’t make them up to agree with what Jesus did.
I agree that the middle chapters of Leviticus are a hard read. It’s one of those books (like all the long ones) that if you preach from it, you tend to pick the best bits – day of Atonement (and for the lefties ch 25) – and refer to the recurring bits – a smell pleasing to the Lord.
ah yes – you are correct Eric!
And while I ‘get’ the concept of Leviticus – I’m just laboring on the task of actually reading it all.
I’m glad it inspires you guys 🙂
I’m a hard person to please!
Ha! Loving your honesty
A youth leader once told me about one of his youth group members who was reading the bible from cover to cover.
The kid updated him each week.
when he told the leader he was up to Leviticus the leader responded ‘good luck’
a week later the leader asked the young guy what he learned.
the kid answered
“about the power of the blood.”