2. Who Shall Ascend to the Lord?
Week 4 • Day 2
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. - Leviticus 9:22-24
As we have seen, YHWH desires to be in a loving relationship with His kingdom people! Israel’s rebel allegiance to the rule of the serpent kingdom, however, sets forth the fundamental problem of all humanity: sin separates us from God. At the end of Exodus, we discover that the portable tabernacle place that gave YHWH’s people access to Him is now off limits to both Moses and the Israelites until certain conditions can be met. How could sinful humans ever return back into the presence of God’s holy kingdom place?
The book of Leviticus sets forth the path for how undeserving serpent-like sinners can experience a relationship with God and live daily in His dwelling place.
Have you recognized a pattern that God’s people are spared when a substitute is offered as a sacrifice (i.e. animal skins, ram in the thicket, passover lamb, Moses’ life)? It is no coincidence, then, that Leviticus opens by documenting a series of sacrificial offerings that allow for Israel’s priests to make atonement (or “cover”) for the people of Israel. Today, we often miss the simple, yet profound lessons of the sacrificial system in Leviticus. We get bogged down in trying to understand and apply the unfamiliar rituals of sacrifice that Israel had to learn if they were to gain access to God. Between their rituals, requirements, and the intricate details of how these sacrifices were to be carried out, it’s easy for the modern reader to miss the point. This is the point: God’s holiness demands that provision be made for our sins or there is simply NO access to God’s place.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. - Leviticus 17:11
The lifeblood of the sacrificial animals was quite literally covering the death we should have experienced because of our sin.
As we saw in Genesis, sin and death did not only have an internal heart impact, but it also had an external life impact on our relationships with creation, with each other, and ultimately with God. Therefore, God calls His people to be externally holy in 3 primary ways: ceremonial cleanliness in the kingdom place, living as a people under God’s kingdom ethic of shalom, and always acknowledging God’s kingdom rule. Once again, it is easy for modern readers to miss the point in these chapters as we try to make sense of many culturally specific commandments. This is the point: God’s holiness demands a “set-apart” kingdom lifestyle free from the intentional and unintentional effects of sin and death or there is simply NO access to God’s place.
CLEANLINESS IN GOD’S PLACE
You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten. - Leviticus 11:45b-47
SHALOM WITH GOD AND HIS PEOPLE
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. - Leviticus 18:1-5
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. - Leviticus 19:18
REMEMBERING GOD’S RULE
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. - Leviticus 23:1
At the center of the book of Leviticus is God’s instruction about the Day of Atonement. Ceremonial cleansing and individual sacrifices could only take the Old Testament people of God so far. A greater sacrifice was necessary that would cover everything within the camp of Israel that had been marked by the kingdom of the serpent, including the tabernacle building itself. On the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), the high priest would finally be allowed to enter the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice first for himself, and then for the sins of the entire Israelite camp. After completing the sacrifice for his own sins, the priest was instructed to choose two goats for the atonement for the sins of the community. One goat would be sacrificed and the other (the Scapegoat) sent into the wilderness to demonstrate that the sins of the people would be removed from them forever. In this way, the Israelites would remember that not only were their sins forgiven but also removed completely from God’s place. Through this one special annual act of worship, God’s people could rest in the assurance of knowing both the forgiveness and removal of sin so that God could make the camp of Israel His place.
No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel…because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. - Leviticus 16:17, 30
But keep in mind, this provision needed to be repeated every single year to maintain the holiness of God’s place. What about today? Do we still need this kind of sacrifice?
This question requires a, “Yes, but….keep reading,” response.
Yes, as long as the serpent continues to roam free, we do need some sort of sacrifice to cover our sins and spare our lives before a holy God. The proof of our allegiance to the serpent kingdom’s rule is everywhere. Nations at war, disease, death, violent crime, injustice, and poverty are just a few of the disharmonious signs that something has gone terribly wrong with humanity. And the troubling part is that our hearts contain the darkness that we see manifest in our world.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 19:7
Before we can address our own brokenness or even our broken world, we must first address our broken relationship with God and His kingdom. The truth is, our sinfulness has created a vast chasm between ourselves and God.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. - Isaiah 59:2
There is simply no getting around the fact that our sinfulness is our undoing and we all - as descendants of Adam and Eve - have bent our knee to the serpent. Perhaps today you are experiencing the deep pain of brokenness in your life because of the serpent’s rule in your life, the sins that other people have committed against you, or the brokenness of the place that has been cursed and brings death as a result of sin?
The gospel of the kingdom found breaking through the book of Leviticus is that God outlines a way for sinful and undeserving sinners to experience a rich and fulfilling relationship with Him. That’s why a proper understanding of the book of Leviticus is so important. It offers its reader confidence that the condition of being separated from God can be changed.
The Levitical code (the laws, rituals, sacrifice and priesthood) was the means God chose for His people to have this kind of access to His place; access He wanted to provide and they needed.
But...wouldn’t it be amazing if God provided an eternal cleansing from the rule of sin in our lives? Wouldn’t it be incredible if God swung the doors wide open for sinners of every era to have full access to God’s place and to live in a deep relationship with Him? Wouldn’t it be good news to know that we are no longer bound by a constant cycle of gory sacrifices because there was a way to experience complete and never-ending access to our King?
This, then, is the timeless lesson that Leviticus provides in the big picture of God’s revelation. Leviticus foreshadows the means by which our savior – the long awaited serpent-crusher – would rescue God’s people from the serpent’s rule, return them to the kingdom place of YHWH, restore His image-beares to rule in a way that loves God and loves others, and reestablish His powerful kingdom rule over the serpent and all things once and for all! Leviticus is all about bringing humanity out from under the kingdom of the serpent and back into the kingdom of God.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. - Psalm 103:11-12
Leviticus leaves us wondering what kind of sacrifice would be able to permanently cleanse us of our sin so that we might be cleansed and brought into God’s kingdom space? Is it even possible to possess a permanently spotless lifeblood that would allow God to permanently pass over our sins?
What sacrifice could offer this eternally perfect and permanent solution?
Share the Gospel: Leviticus foreshadows the means by which our savior – the long awaited serpent-crusher – would rescue God’s people from the serpent’s rule, return them to the kingdom place of YHWH, restore His image-beares to rule in a way that loves God and loves others, and reestablish His powerful kingdom rule over all things once and for all! Leviticus is all about bringing humanity out from under the kingdom of the serpent and back into the kingdom of God.
