What’s the purpose of Leviticus? Is it just a boring book of rules and sacrifices?

<p>What’s the purpose of Leviticus? Is it just a boring book of rules and sacrifices?</p>

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Hope Channel

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2023: Leviticus

Sebastien Braxton

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

01 Jesus

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now, here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey, guys, my name's Justin, and I wanna welcome you to Inverse.

And in the studio we have Israel and Siku and Sebastian.

And you guys, and apparently Sebastian just got back from Hawaii, so we wanna say aloha to you too.

We missed Sebastian in our last quarter, and you're with us this quarter, and we are studying a new book of the Bible, not newly written, but a new book that we haven't studied yet.

Wanted to ask you, what's your favorite book of the Bible?

I think my favorite has been the Book of John.

Book of Beginnings, it explains why we are where we are.

I know Genesis was gonna be my answer So I guess outside of Genesis then I would say I Like I I love the book of Revelation Revelation.

Yeah, I like the idea of symbols and, you know, having like multiple contexts of understanding.

It's like the limited, but then the spiritual.

I just like Nehemiah, the logistical and then getting stuff like, you know, fixed and all that stuff.

We want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and you can look at our past Bible study guides and you can go to hopetv.org slash inverse, that's the right 1, And you can look at our past quarters that we've looked at the book of Revelation and then we looked at parts of Genesis.

We will get to the book of John, but in this quarter we are in the book of Leviticus.

So if you have your Bibles, take your Bibles out, we're gonna go to Leviticus.

And in this quarter, we're kind of looking at, or this lesson, we're looking at an overview of all of Leviticus.

First, first knee-jerk reaction when you heard Leviticus is what?

I think 1 of the harder books to read, right, if you're kind of doing the Bible in a year thing or reading through the Bible, like Leviticus is 1 of those books.

And then you come to Leviticus, you're like maybe 2, 2 days.

You're like flying through Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus is like, oh man, this is like, you know, 4 verses long.

You feel like you're reading the, the like articles of the constitution or something.

So in the midst of all this, the whole point is Jesus.

And so we want to start off with a word of prayer, and then we'll get into a Bible text and start talking about little elements of Jesus.

Father in heaven, there are fewer things that we could be doing that would grant us even greater inspiration and significance than to meditate on the life of Christ through Your Word.

We pray that as we begin this new quarter, studying through the book of Leviticus, that You may open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things about our Savior.

May we understand your heart better and may this make us better people.

And Father, most of all, grant us your spirit and bless us with understanding as we study today in Jesus' name.

We're gonna go to Isaiah chapter 1, verse 11.

We've been talking about Leviticus, Leviticus, Leviticus, but Isaiah 1, 11 is a great starting verse.

So Siku, if you don't mind reading verse 11 for us.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord.

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats.

So there's a huge disconnect when it comes to religion and spirituality.

A lot of our wording for religion has been taken over by new agers, like meditation, dwelling, and presence, and this kind of like inner like warm, kind of energy stuff.

And then when you look at the Bible, which is supposed to be like the most spiritual of all books, there's just a lot of, you know, in Leviticus, We talked about there's animals and then there's like, what kind of animals and what gender of the animal and what, you know, like how you, and it's, in a sense, it's not very spiritual, especially the book of Leviticus.

And then We have a whole episode on this, but connect those, and let's get into the starting point of that discussion.

Yeah, when you look at Isaiah, what he's responding to is the fact that God's people are wicked.

And what has happened up to this point in their experience is the fact that in their mind, they've been so desensitized to sin that they think, oh, as long as I kill something, then I'm all right and I keep on living.

And so God is responding here and He's saying, the purpose of religion is to eliminate wickedness in your life.

Yeah, and to that extent, Christ or God, Christ and God have set up the Bible and its stories and its teachings and its practices to help guide towards the elimination of evil in the life of the individual and within this context you have Jesus in the New Testament but you don't just find Him in the New Testament you find Him throughout the entirety of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation And you find him in stories, you find him in people, and you find him in types and symbols.

And I think that's where we fit when we land on the book of Leviticus.

It is a book of types and symbols that is designed to teach us how horrible sin is to eliminate wickedness from our lives.

I think we use that pretty easily, but these are patterns or motifs or images that point to a larger reality.

Like religion is the elimination of evil, of sin in our lives.

Jonathan Walter

Callie Williams

02 Devotion

My name's Justin, and welcome to Inverse.

Whether you're watching on video or whether you're listening on podcast, we wanna welcome each 1 of you.

In the studio we have Sebastian and Jonathan on my right, your left, and we have Kelly on my left and your right.

We're gonna pray for the Lord and we're gonna get into the book of Leviticus.

Last week, we looked at an introduction of Leviticus and now we're actually gonna get into Leviticus.

Jesus, we thank you so much for the opportunity to dive into this really awesome book of Leviticus and we pray that your spirit will help us to understand the various sacrifices and the implications and what it all means.

Please teach us and give us new insights.

Last week we did talk about the favorite Bible books that we had.

You guys were on last week, but Brax was.

And then they shared, like, it was John, it was Genesis.

So I'll ask you not the same question, but the opposite question, just so that we're, you know, inverse.

What book is just like, ah, it's just a hard book.

And it can't be Leviticus, because we're talking about Leviticus.

But what's 1 of those books that are like, you get that factor.

And Braxwell, you get the privilege of sharing.

All books of the Bible are easy and accessible.

I usually- You can do Zephaniah next week.

For me, it's more sections of lots of books, and that's just all the genealogies.

Or even just like, cause I'll be like, oh, I love Exodus.

And also then, just when they get into the details, yeah, the first half.

So it's that, and then to get into the details of like, oh, the sanctuary, very great, great.

Can we just skip to the practical application part?

But then I remember, oh, we're stupid, too.

I think it's the some of the minor prophets because you don't get a lot of context.

In the book of like when was this happening?

You're trying to like tease out details yeah and for me I love the narratives because I get so much context of Abraham was here this is where he went geography culture yeah versus you read like you know Habakkuk Nahum Obadiah you're like yeah so like where is this why yeah What is this nation problem with Edom?

Yeah And so it's it's it feels like I have to do more background research to understand the book Rather than like I like just dealing with the text and it's giving me information and I'm just kind of puzzle piecing it together.

You read 1 psalm, it's like, this is awesome.

But then you keep reading the next psalm, and you're like, all right.

So then it's like, you know, deliver me, O Lord, and praise, O Lord.

And then like next time you're like, please.

I figure, I assume that there was music attached to it.

03 Care

I'm the host of this podcast show, if you're listening, or video show, if you're watching.

And we're very happy for your support all throughout the years and throughout each quarter and each season, we want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and study the Inverse Bible Study Guide with us.

We are in the topic of Leviticus, Inverse of Leviticus.

And you can also watch the videos, the past videos, if you go to hope.tv.org slash inverse and binge watch the last 6 years, 7 years that we've been on.

We've been on for quite a while and praise the Lord for, for His blessing and your support.

And then my friends coming in every week to record.

We have Siku, we have Callie, and then we have that 1 over there named Jonathan.

And Siku, can you ask for the Lord's blessing?

Loving Father, we ask that you would guide our thinking now as we're going to be delving into Scripture.

Lord, help us to glean lessons that are going to be a blessing to us and that would make us a blessing to the world.

And most importantly, help us to see a clearer picture of Jesus.

And Jonathan, let's start reading from chapter 2 of Leviticus.

We wanna encourage you to get your Bibles out, whether it's digital or analog or smoke screen, whatever you need.

Chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll start reading from the Bible.

When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it.

He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, 1 of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense and the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar an offering made by fire a sweet aroma to the Lord the rest of the grain offering shall be errands and his sons it is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire all right so we we've talked about how Leviticus is hard.

But it's hard and weird because there's a deeper meaning to it.

So, rather than just seeing as those things, we need to kind of lose a little bit of brain material to get into it and Holy Spirit to guide us.

And we've covered last week, Callie, what did we talk about last week?

Talked about the burnt offering and the completion of the sacrifice of Jesus and the completion of our surrender to him as a response to his sacrifice.

It's a cool, just, it's an, At the end of the day, it's an illustration of Jesus.

And then we talked about there's 5 offerings and we got to look at how each one's a little different.

And so please, if you're getting discouraged, don't get discouraged.

We're in the living of 2 and so you can't get discouraged.

And then there's something unique about this offering, depending on your translation, there's different words for it.

It's also with some other words for it, depending on your translation.

And so when you look at the 5 offerings, it's as if there are like 5 pieces, 5 strands of thread.

So, yeah, so all of this, you know, and we see the rope, and like, man, that's Jesus.

But we're actually parsing out 1 thing at a time and no 1 offering is perfect, but we see different elements and in some way you're kind of getting a deeper understanding of the rope by the micro analysis.

So in verse or chapter 2 in verse 1, there's oil, there's flour, there's frankincense.

I don't know what frankincense is, but I'm assuming it smells really good, because it talks about smell in verse 2, and then verse 4, Callie, can you read from verse 4 onwards?

And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be a fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil.

You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it it is a grain offering yeah it's so so the first offering is just more like you know types of animals and burning them in fire and until their ashes This 1 sounds more like a recipe.

The grain offerings have not so much to do with atonement.

It's more as an offering of thanksgiving and support, you know, to the ministry of the sanctuary, but also thanksgiving to God.

And while it does represent Jesus as well, the focus here is not on obtaining atonement, obtaining forgiveness for sins, because that always requires the blood of an animal, the death of an animal in this context symbolizing the death of Christ.

But here this is the giving of, you know, returning in a way to God, my thanksgiving and also my support to the priesthood, because I mean, these guys had to live somehow as well.

And so the grain offering is not an offering for atonement, but an offering of thanksgiving.

I love this 1 because maybe it's not as gory and bloody and surgical as the other ones because it's like you know entrails and you show you know although this one's just like hey dash up you know this and a little bit put in a kitchen mate and you so on a larger picture without being so flippant it's There are some cultures out there and 1 of those cultures that where food is just huge.

So when you meet someone, you have to eat.

Or when you say goodbye, you're like, well, hope you ate well.

Like Eating is such a crucial part of the culture of the fabric Whereas there's other cultures out there like, you know You can be sitting and hanging out them for all day and they don't even ask if you're hungry or if you want they're not They don't even go to the kitchen and these these cultures are to be despised for their lack of complexity But the Korean culture is very revolved around hospitality and about food The Middle East was very big on food And maybe some of you guys are part of these cultures that have similar and then and it's it's in many ways It's very superficial like it's like hey, there's just an exchange of food, but with that cultural background, this exchange of food is huge.

04 Fellowship

I'm the host of Inverse, and we are so happy to see each 1 of you who are with us through podcast or through video.

In the studio, we have Callie and Siku and Sebastian.

We're going from aliens to the Southern accent to Leviticus chapter 3.

We wanna say that we are studying the book of Leviticus and we're so happy that you're with us.

We have been covering chapter 1 and chapter 2 last week and Leviticus is not the easiest book.

So I encourage you to go to inversebible.org and look at the Bible study guide entitled Leviticus.

It's the third book of the Bible and it should be the most up-to-date Bible study guide depending on when you're watching this episode or listening to this episode.

We're gonna pray and read the Bible and then study.

Father in heaven, we are grateful so much for your presence here with us and we're grateful for the gift of your word.

I pray that you would open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things from your word and that you would help us to see Jesus, that you'd help us to understand the details, and that we would enjoy this time together, that you would take any distractions from us, but we would really see what you're trying to teach us today, and how this applies to us today and every day from now.

We ask and pray all this in Christ's name, amen.

Sebastian, let's go to chapter 3 of Leviticus.

This Leviticus is the third book of the Bible.

And in chapter 3 is the third chapter of Leviticus.

When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.

And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.

Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, the 2 kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove.

And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire, as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Okay, let's pick up verse 6, Siku, can you read for verse 6?

If his offering as a sacrifice, if his offering as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord is of the flock, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

If he offers a lamb as his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it before the tabernacle of meeting.

And Aaron's sons shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.

Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering as an offering made by fire to the Lord its fat and the whole fat tail which he shall remove close to the backbone and the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, the 2 kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys he shall remove, and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire to the Lord." And then Kali from verse 12 to verse 17.

And if his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord.

He shall lay his hand on its head and kill it before the tabernacle of meeting.

And the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.

Then he shall offer from it his offering, as an offering made by fire to the Lord, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, the 2 kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys he shall remove.

And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma, all the fat as the Lord's.

This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwellings, You shall eat neither fat nor blood." All right, so we just read all of chapter 3 and this is like 1 of those chapters like what?

There's fat, there's kidneys, there's tails of fat, there's backbone, fatty lobes.

I mean, it's got all what you need in a good chapter of the Bible.

It's not 1 of those chapters that you share with someone on the hospital bed, right?

It's not when you want to encourage someone, you know, and we're like, hey, let's go to Leviticus 3 and let's read about, but we shan't be so, I used the word shan't, that's, oh, it's here, all right.

It'd be so arrogant as to say, hey, but this is not applicable to my life.

I guess I guess every every episode we have, and especially in the book of Leviticus, we have to emphasize that it's a difficult book.

It's also a olfactory aroma book, as we talked about last week.

So we're in a trajectory just to give you more context.

I like to do that And you guys like to give me weird responses and response.

Second 1, it's like a recipe And it's about, hey, giving to God, right?

The third 1 here, what are, we can do this together.

Well, the first thing you see is the similar to the first offering, right?

You lay your hand in verse 2 on the head of the offering and then you kill it at the door of the tabernacle.

To represent the substitution element, right?

This is taking your place, This is a transference, you know, between the, the offerer and the offering itself.

So it's building that similar connection, that substitutionary, and then taking the blood and sprinkling it all around, but there's no mention of it making atonement, right?

So this is kind of a unique offering, but this isn't about a problem in your relationship with God.

This is not about a conflict or wrath or a mistake.

But this is actually about something else where it's like, oh, I'm offering this not because there's something wrong or I'm trying to be reconciled.

I'm offering this in a sense of communion with God.

So the goal here is, isn't about peace and assuaging guilt.

This, this is really about enjoying peace and giving that thanksgiving and fellowshipping with God and with the priest and with each other, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, depending on your translation, some say peace offering, some say fellowship offering, depending on which English you're using.

This is not an atonement offering, per se.

And then when you compare this, and I love Leviticus because chapter 1 is like 1 offering chapter 2, there's another offering chapter 3, there's another.

05 Forgiveness

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hello everyone and welcome to Inverse, a Bible study show for young adults and those who are young at heart.

My name is Justin Kim, host of this podcast and video.

And in the studio, we have Sebastian and Israel and Kelly.

And we have all of you guys, I want to encourage you to go to InverseBible.org get our Bible study guides on the topic of Leviticus, you can also get the app on your Android and your Apple platforms if you Search for Sabbath School and get the app that's blue icon created by Advent Tech.

And you can download the inverse Bible study guides there as well.

Let's go to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 4.

We're looking at all sorts of things in the Book of Leviticus, we went through recipes, we went through dead animals, we went through intercessors, there's a lot that it's going, a lot of fronts that it's touching and we're going to go to Leviticus Chapter 4, Israel, Can you pray for us before we read Scripture?

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Series

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2023: Leviticus

01 Jesus

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Jesus

29m

02 Devotion

29m

03 Care

29m

04 Fellowship

29m

05 Forgiveness

29m

06 Restitution

29m

07 Ministry

29m

08 Worship

29m

09 Health

29m

10 Atonement

29m

11 Judgment

29m

12 Purity

29m

13 Holiness

29m

14 The Law

29m

Sound Doctrine