Lecture 14.docx

Now we turn the page from Exodus to the next section of the Torah, which has traditionally been known as Leviticus. Now, be reminded again that we don't have the same kind of major break between Exodus and Leviticus that we had between Genesis and Exodus. Remember that Genesis is the first great div...

Now we turn the page from Exodus to the next section of the Torah, which has traditionally been known as Leviticus. Now, be reminded again that we don't have the same kind of major break between Exodus and Leviticus that we had between Genesis and Exodus. Remember that Genesis is the first great division of the Torah, but Exodus 1, the narrative that begins there, goes all the way through Numbers 25. So we're dealing with a secondary division, and we're going to see a very close correlation between the events that conclude Exodus and the beginning of Leviticus. Just some quick introductory items. And literally, and he called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying, and obviously the he here is Yahweh, and so there's the Hebrew title, and he called. And that is going to be one of the significant features of this part of the Torah, that it is a recording of the words of the Lord that were given to Moses to be spoken to all of Israel. In fact, it has been well stated that Leviticus, if you take that just as a book by itself, is more is more dominated as being purely the word of the Lord than any other book in the Bible. If we could have, as we do with the Gospels, a red-letter edition when we have the very words spoken by the Lord that are recorded, Leviticus would be the most red-letter book even more than any of the Gospels. Very, very little narrative in between these lengthy presentations of what Yahweh said. And so there is a sense in which, and he called, is a much better title than Leviticus, which comes from the Septuagint Levitical, that is a book pertaining to the Levites. And it's very, very interesting that it is not a book pertaining to the Levites. It is a book pertaining to what the Lord said to Israel. Let's just quickly go through. Leviticus 1-2, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them. Chapter 4 verse 1, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying. Now in chapter 8, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, and that's when we have the narrative of the setting apart of Aaron and his family for the priesthood, and the first strange fire conference in Leviticus chapter 10. 11-2, Speak to the sons of Israel. 12-2, Speak to the sons of Israel. And chapter 15 verse 2, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying a trend. And chapter 18 verse 2, Speak to the sons of Israel. 19-2, Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel. 22, You shall also say to the sons of Israel. Now certainly chapter 21-22, Speak to the priests and tell them. But 22, 23-2, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them. 24-2, Command the sons of Israel. 25-2, Speak to the sons of Israel. And finally chapter 27 verse 2, Speak to the sons of Israel. Who is this book most pertaining to? Not the Levites, sons of Israel. So Israeliticus would be a better title than Leviticus. This is predominantly for all of Israel. So it's not a book pertaining to the Levites. It is a book by and large pertaining to the sons of Israel. Now let's take a look at the close correlation as we think through the date of the events. In chapter 40 of Exodus verse 2, On the first day of the first month, you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. That's what takes place. It is set up. And after the tabernacle was set up, verse 34 of chapter 40 of Exodus, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So this is the first day, first month, second year. Then in Numbers, Numbers chapter 1 verse 1, And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month in the second year. Now when we get to Numbers, we're going to look at a chronological chart where we're going to see that certain of the events recorded in the first 10 chapters of Numbers go back into the first month of the second year. But the census, which starts Numbers, is on the first day of the second month of the second year. And on that basis we say that, all right, correlating what is in Exodus chapter 40 with what is in Numbers chapter 1, that the events in Leviticus generally take place in about a 30-day period. Now it seems that all of what is said is said after the tabernacle had been erected. So it has to be after the first day of the second month. It is possible that obviously some of the things in Leviticus were said before Israel left Sinai on the 20th day of the second month, that we find out in Numbers chapter 10. So strictly, what just comes before and what comes after, that there is a 30-day period possible, that the messages and the few narratives that are given could have taken place through, as I said, the 20th day of the second month, but that's just 50 days. So we're in the heart of the Torah, and the narrative now slows down to a crawl. Thirty, at most, 50 days, and everything in these 27 chapters occurs. That says, the Holy Spirit says these 50 days are fairly important, and that in the history of interpretation is exactly what has taken place in Jewish interpretation. For Christians, the most important part of the Torah is Genesis. In fact, we already talked about the fact Genesis 1 to 11, and rightfully so, because Genesis 1 to 11 relates to all mankind, and the Noetic covenant is given to all of mankind, which in chapters 10 and 11 is found in national units. So there's a sense in which, yes, Genesis 1 to 11 speaks to all mankind and speaks about all the nations. And so obviously, at Christians, this is what is most relevant, most related to us. Beginning in chapter 12, we start to have the history of Israel. The significant kingdom of praise starts off where? Genesis chapter 12. Kingdom of praise, history of Israel, rightfully so begins in Genesis chapter 12. Everything in the first 11 chapters is basically a prelude to that. And certainly as Christians, we're interested in Abraham more than Isaac and Jacob, because Abraham is the father of faith, and we are united to God with the greater Abraham, the ultimate individual seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. And certainly as we read the New Testament, particularly in Romans chapter 4 and Galatians chapter 3, we see the importance of Abraham for those of us who are Gentile believers. So we are concerned about Abraham. But by the time we get really to Genesis chapter 25, the death of Abraham, the birth of Jacob, Israel, we're starting to lose interest very, very quickly now in the Torah as Gentiles. But beginning with Israel is really in chapter 25, where it starts to get important for Israel, for the Jews. And in the Torah, interestingly, the Jewish scholars have given more of their attention to Leviticus than any other part of the Torah. In fact, if this was a class on the Torah in a Jewish institution, guess where we would have started? Leviticus 1.1. This is important. In other words, you start with Leviticus and then you branch out before and after, but Leviticus is the heart. It is the most important part of the Torah, and that is clearly reflected in the history of interpretation. And Hartley's commentary in the work, biblical commentary, as you can see, has an extensive discussion of the interpretation of Leviticus, both in Jewish and Christian history. And you can take a look at the ancient Christian commentaries on Scripture, if you want to take a look particularly at what some of the early Church Fathers had to say about passages in Leviticus, and a nice introduction in the dictionary of the theological interpretation of the Bible. So you can see the impact Leviticus had. Interestingly, that in the early stages of the rabbinic comments, until the temple was destroyed in AD 70, that Leviticus was taken at face value. This is exactly what God requires of Israel. But what happened in AD 70? Destruction of the temple, the loss of the priesthood. Israel doesn't know today what family they are of. Revelation 7 reminds us that God hasn't forgotten what tribe they belong to. But no Jewish person today can tell you what tribe. No one knows who the priests are. No one knows whether they're from the tribe of Levi or some other tribe, whether from the family of Aaron or not. So in other words, no temple, no priesthood, no ability to sacrifice, and you still have Leviticus. And so it was in that post-AD 70 time period when you start to see the Jews moving to some allegorical understanding of Leviticus, because they could no longer take it at face value. How do you obey Leviticus? How do you bring these offerings to the Lord if there's no longer a place to bring them and a priesthood through which they can be offered? So you've got to start talking about, well, what is the allegorical meaning? And of course, this happens every year that we are just a few days since Israel had their Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. And so Leviticus 16. Well, there's no way they can take Leviticus 16 at face value today. And so allegorically, well, as long as you afflict your soul, as long as you repent and promise to do better next year, as long as you repent and promise to do better next year, then the Day of Atonement has had its spiritual impact. Everything that is spoken literally, we don't take at face value, but there's allegorical meaning. This stands for something deeper and more spiritual. And so it's interesting that the Jews move more and more post-AD 70 into more of an allegorical approach. And it's only been in really the last hundred years, both with Christian interpretation and Jewish interpretation, that some of this excessive allegorization, or can I also say within Christian interpretation, excessive typology has somewhat been put to the side and coming back to say, what was the meaning of Leviticus for Israel on the plains of Moab for that second generation? What were they hearing? How did this apply to them now on that basis? What principles can we see fiddled through the rest of scripture that apply to us as believers today? So there's been much more of a movement on what did Leviticus mean to the original audience? And on that basis, what's its implication? What's its application for those of us, obviously, who weren't on the plains of Moab when Moses first wrote this for the benefit of Israel. So it's a very fascinating history of interpretation, and you should, if you're going to do study in Leviticus, get acquainted with it. All right, any questions on the introduction before I go to the major themes? The big takeaway is if this was a Jewish institution, this would be very important. As a Christian institution, this is where let's get through this as quickly as possible and back to the good stuff. Well, we're going to give some equal time though to Leviticus. All right, let's think in terms of the major themes of which there really is not a great deal of debate, only what is the most predominant theme. And if you read much on Leviticus, and I'm sure many of you put this down as the first theme on your paper, so I'll know whether you did it before or after class. So, yes, about 150 times in the 27 chapters, the root for holiness is used. So yeah, the whole concept of holiness is very, very vital as far as this portion of the Torah is concerned. And remember we talked about how holiness really began as a theme in Exodus chapter three, where God, the place he calls Moses, the burning bush, before it is holy ground. And so he is set apart by a holy God to a holy purpose. And the people who come to Sinai, God's purpose is ultimately that they be a holy people. And this concept of holiness, a holy God calling a people to holiness continues in the book of Leviticus. So it's a vital theme. But it wasn't until I began teaching here that I read an article, I believe it was his NIDOT article on the theology of Leviticus by Richard Avabach, that he convinced me that holiness, though being a major theme, was not the most important theme. The most important aspect of Leviticus is the fact that now Israel was living in the presence of Yahweh. Once again, we have to begin in Exodus chapter 40. The glory of the Lord, verse 35, filled the tabernacle. God allows a localized representation of his presence to be seen in the sight of all Israel. This presence that filled the tabernacle was seen as a cloud by day and fire by night. And notice that throughout all their journeys, verse 36, whenever the cloud was taken, the sons of Israel were set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, last words of Exodus, in the sight of all the house of Israel. Now when we get to Numbers, we're going to see how all of the tribes of Israel were located around the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the central focus. And all of the tribes find their location in relationship to the tabernacle. And it didn't make any difference whether you were at the far corner, you know, northeast, southwest, northeast, southeast. You know, you might have been half a mile away, a mile away from the tabernacle, mile and a half. I mean, your tent was as far away as it could get. And you might have been half a mile away, a mile away from the tabernacle, mile and a half. I mean, your tent was as far away as it could get. And why did my family have to be the least family in Israel, that I'm so far away from the tabernacle? But it made no difference because if you look toward the tabernacle, you saw what? You saw the cloud. You saw the cloud, oh, the most holy place. And the cloud was in the most holy place. A cloud by day and fire by night, in the sight of all Israel. There was not an individual in the camp of Israel who could not look and see the physical representation of the presence of the Lord. The Lord was in dwelling Israel, and they were conscious of it. So what is the major theme of Exodus? Leviticus. You know what the major theme of Exodus was? Name of Yahweh and deliverance. All right, Leviticus. That was just for review. Leviticus. The major theme is how does one now live with the reality that Yahweh is present among us? Yahweh's presence as you go through Leviticus is both a blessed thing and a dangerous thing. It's a great blessing to have Yahweh's presence. It's also very dangerous to have Yahweh's presence. When one is faithful and obedient, Yahweh's presence is a delight. When one is disobedient, unfaithful, it can bring and did bring disaster. And so really Leviticus is all about how Israel maintained the relationship that Yahweh had established between himself and them. You gotta realize as you're reading through Leviticus the background is Yahweh, his presence, seen in the sight of all Israel. So nothing in Leviticus is given for Israel to receive Yahweh's presence. It is all that they might enjoy and maintain Yahweh's presence in their midst. Notice all the offerings are before the Lord. Beginning in 1-2 with the burnt offering, when any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, to Yahweh. He's to do it in such a way, verse 3, that he may be accepted before Yahweh. There needs to be a conscious awareness on the part of every Israelite when they bring an offering to the tabernacle, they are bringing it to Yahweh. And it has to be done in accordance with what Yahweh has commanded that it might be accepted by Yahweh on their behalf. So as you go through the first 17 chapters of the book of Leviticus it speaks about the different offerings that Israel is to bring and the occasions upon which they were to bring them. Again and again it's emphasized that this is an offering that is brought before Yahweh and that they may be acceptable before the Lord, acceptable before Yahweh. And then beginning in chapter 18 verse 2, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, I am Yahweh your God. You shall not do. You shall, you shall not, you shall, you shall not. And of course the famous passage in 19 to you shall be holy, for I the Lord, I Yahweh your God am holy. And Yahweh is in their presence. And Yahweh gives commandments. So it's almost like the offerings they approach Yahweh and then as they, they leave the presence of Yahweh to live their daily life, they are to live life remembering Yahweh is their God. And of course they can look back over their shoulder and be reminded that oh Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is right there. He's looking over my shoulder. He sees everything that I do. Yahweh is right there. He's looking over my shoulder. He sees everything that I do. And so really with, with, with Leviticus, this is the key theme that throughout these 27 chapters they continually be being reminded Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh says this to you. Yahweh says this to you. Yahweh calls and says this to you as a reminder that when you come to the tabernacle, you come to Yahweh. And when you leave the tabernacle to live your daily life, you don't leave Yahweh's presence. You leave the tabernacle but Yahweh is still in your midst. And since I'm Yahweh, and since I'm holy, this is what I expect for you as my people. So the offerings emphasize the presence of Yahweh. The daily activities emphasize the presence of Yahweh. I said again as you go through this part of the Torah, you can't get away from the fact Yahweh is present. Now that segues into Leviticus 19. Yahweh is holy. And so if we said holiness becomes a key theme. But notice it's a key theme because this portion of the Torah is saturated with Yahweh's presence. And since Yahweh is holy, therefore it is saturated with holiness because Yahweh is a holy God. Now what does holiness mean? The root of holiness basically means to be set apart, to be distinct, to be separate. Now Yahweh is holy. And of course that's already been seen in Exodus. He is unique among the gods. There is no one like unto Yahweh. And so he is the holy, set apart one. And of course as one who is set apart, he is distinct and separate from his creation. And he is distinct and separate obviously also from their sin. And so holiness does start to take on a spiritual dimension. And first and foremost the idea is that just as God is separate, as a physical being, that he is distinct from any other being. He is distinct from any other God. But he is also distinct from his creation and he is distinct from the sin that now permeates mankind and the sin that permeates his own people of Israel. And there is a sense in which everything that is given in Leviticus, every requirement, because so many times you say, well why did God say that? Why did God have him do that? And God was doing that to make a distinction between them and the rest of the nations. In Leviticus 11, 44 and 45, it talks about not becoming unclean by eating an unclean animal. And why was Israel to do this? For I am the Lord your God. Therefore consecrate yourselves and be holy. For I am the Lord your God. Therefore consecrate yourselves and be holy. For I am holy. You shall not make yourself unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord. I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus you shall be holy. For I am holy. So why are you calling us to eat certain meats are all right and others aren't? Because I'm holy. And just as I am distinct, you are to be distinct. So Israel was to be a distinct people. Now some of those when you get to chapters 18 through 20 and talks about things that are an abomination to the Lord, that they are actions that go against the Lord's creative pattern that he has designed for mankind. All the way from idolatry to immoral practices to having different kinds of cloth blended together in the same garment. I'm not sure that synthetic coats would make it today. It's a distinction. And you can't put two together. Certain foods can't be eaten together. Some of these things can't be eaten together. Some of these things we can see well that's pretty clear on why that doesn't fit into God's creative pattern. But what about some of these other things? And particularly the animals of Leviticus 11 when we have the reversal of this in Acts 10 after the coming of the Holy Spirit. So why these distinctions? Some we can see very clearly. Others, and the answer Leviticus gives is very simple. I, Yahweh, am holy. You, my people, Israel, are to be holy. You're to be holy as I'm holy. And so some of these things that are given in Leviticus are just, this is the way it is because you're my holy people. And I'm going to make sure that that you know and the nations know that you are distinct. All the way down to what you wear and what you eat. Why are you wearing that today? Because Yahweh is my God. Why are you wearing that today? Because Yahweh is my God. Why are you eating that? Because Yahweh is my God. There's a sense in which when you take Leviticus seriously that when Israel came into contact with the Gentiles everything they did was a testimony of the fact that they were holy. I'm going to have to give testimony. Why are you doing this way? Because Yahweh is my God. Well, who's Yahweh? I'm glad you asked. Robert, can I call that evangelism Old Testament style? Where you do things that are so countercultural that the culture asks my individuals, why are you doing that? You should be ready to give an answer. I'm concerned the God that you have. That's holiness. Things can be holy. Things were consecrated, set apart for use in the tabernacle. Times can be holy. And so notice in Numbers chapter 23, these are set apart days beginning with the weekly Sabbath. And so on the seventh day proclaim a holy convocation. Well, actually 23-2 is an introduction to all that is said in chapter 23. The Lord's appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations for my appointed times are these. Then he begins with the Sabbath and then moves on to feast of unleavened bread, Passover, etc. And so these are holy times. They're distinct. They're different. And so on the Sabbath and on these feast days you are not to do what you do regularly as far as work is concerned but have a holy convocation. You come together as an assembly. An assembly to be reminded of the Lord and what the Lord has done. Obviously these become part of Israel's worship calendar. And it's on these occasions when we get to the end of the Torah with the feast of tabernacles where the Torah is to be read from beginning to end. We've already looked at that in Deuteronomy 31 on the tabernacles of the sabbatical years, seventh year. This is a time of holy convocation. This is a time when Torah is to be read. Well, if that's true about the feast of tabernacles as you get into Israel's history, all the way from the weekly Sabbath to these times were times when different parts of scripture were read and reflected upon, meditated upon. It's a time of holy convocation. It's a time to have your mind because your body is not dealing with the things of daily life. Your six days of work on the seventh day you put that aside and your mind is not upon those things. Your mind is upon Yahweh. Who Yahweh is. What Yahweh requires. And so in Leviticus Yahweh is holy. God is holy. Israel is holy. The tabernacle and the vessels associated with the tabernacle, the people associated with the tabernacle are holy. And then the different time periods that the Lord has determined for these holy convocations. These times are also distinct, different, holy. In contrast to that which is common. The profane. And obviously to profane that which is holy is to make it common. And that which is common can be consecrated so that it might be holy. But there's a further step. That which is common is divided between the clean and the unclean. And the unclean can never come in contact with the holy. There has to first be that which is unclean being cleansed so that that cleansing can lead to then it being set apart and being holy. And I used to have a chart but it's much better represented now in in the word and the world as you can see on page 225. Dr. Cressani talks about these and these arrows on that which tends toward and that which tends away. And he divides it into the sacred and the common or the holy and the common. That which is distinct, that which is separate and that which isn't. All right and so the that which is clean from the common can be sanctified and made holy. And therefore that can come into the presence of God. So whether a thing or whether a person, there has to be that which is clean there has to be that which is clean, sanctified, consecrated to be made holy. And of course to profane is to take that which is holy and make it common. With Yahweh that means to treat him like any other god. To make an idol, to just deal with him like he's like one of the gods of the nations is to profane his holy name. You forget to withhold the distinction, the uniqueness, the separateness. And so here is the clean and the clean can become unclean and it seems as though the holy, that which can come into contact with God, that which can have fellowship with God, as opposed to the unclean which is as far away from Yahweh as is possible. Where we have empty enmity with God and becoming unclean not necessarily being sinful in and of itself. There are some aspects of uncleanness. I mean, a woman gives birth to a baby and she is unclean. She has a son, 40 days of uncleanness. Daughter, 80 days of uncleanness. Now when she's unclean, part of that cleansing process to be all right, part of that cleansing process to be cleansed from that uncleanness is you just got, you gotta let the time go. You can't speed it up. You gotta wait 40 days and then you can bring the proper offering or the cleansing and now the woman could come again into fellowship with the Lord, be sanctified, consecrated. Now is there anything that is, we might put it this way, explicitly sinful about giving birth? Genesis 1, no. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Whether man sinned or did not sin, he was to do what? Multiply. Childbirth in and of itself is not sinful. Childbirth in and of itself is a blessing given by God to his creation. This is the way that mankind can fulfill the mandate to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. So why is bringing a child into the world enmity with God? And why is it doubly unclean to have a daughter instead of a son? God said so. Israel, they need to be reminded, all right, childbirth, though there's nothing innately sinful about it. Well, yes, it is tainted now by sin. Because if you bring a son into the world, I was going to say bring a son into the world, you gotta sin. No, you got a son in the world, you got another sinner. So there's nothing innately evil, it's not sinful about it, but the result of childbirth is going to be a multiplication of sin. And what about a daughter? A daughter herself is going to be fruitful, multiply and bring in more sinners. Ladies, you get the privilege of bringing, I don't know if you're here to say that to, but ladies, some are going to watch the video. You get the privilege of bringing in a child into the world, but that child is going to be a sinner, and if it's a daughter, it's going to reproduce sin. So you need to be right, nothing innately wrong or with bodily charges. Anyway, it still is less than God desired as far as the creation was concerned. It is a reminder that it is less than, therefore it reminds Israel of sin, of enmity with God. And the clang can be polluted and need to be cleansed before it can ever be sanctified and be brought in. To contact with God. And chapter 10 of Leviticus, no matter how you interpret it, and we'll talk about the different approaches as far as interpretation. Certainly the most important aspect of Leviticus chapter 10 is the fact that that which was not sanctified was brought into the presence of Yahweh with disastrous results. And it's interesting, it's within that context. Chapter 10, verse 10, the priests are called to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, between the unclean and the clean. You better have these categories well in mind because your life depends upon it, because Yahweh, a holy God, is in your presence. And if you come into the presence of Yahweh in the wrong way, it is spiritual and physical disaster. So, and you can certainly read what Dr. Krasani has written about holiness and ritual purity, which is of course very, very vital as far as Israel was concerned.