Day 49: Leviticus 16-18

Welcome to five -minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today's February the 18th, and we'll be looking at Leviticus 16 through 18

Now today's reading brings us to the theological center of the book of Leviticus and in many ways the center of the entire

Pentateuch Leviticus 16 describes the day of atonement the most solemn day in all of Israel's calendar

Everything in the book has been building us towards this moment the sacrifices the priests the purity laws the clean and unclean things all

Of it is converging here Then in Leviticus 17 through 18 it shows us what flows out of that day

Once the sin is dealt with life must be reshaped worship has to be regulated blood has to be guarded sexual

Boundaries must be defined and these chapters answer the very deepest question in the book of Leviticus And that is how can a sinful people survive in the presence of God not just a day

But year after year after year after year Now Leviticus 16 opens with a warning and it recalls the death of Nadab and Abihu Those are

Aaron's sons who the fire of God came down and consumed them whole and the reason for that is that Access to God is deadly if it's approached

Casually the high priest can't just enter the most holy place whenever he feels like it He enters once a year and he does not enter

Confidently, he enters trembling with blood and preparation all preceding it now

Aaron first offers a sacrifice for himself The mediator must be cleansed before he can represent anyone else and then two goats are brought forward one is

Sacrificed and its blood is carried behind the veil and it's sprinkled on the very mercy seat

Which is the where the white hot presence of God dwells? This cleanses the sanctuary itself from the accumulated defilement of Israel's ongoing sin

And the message is staggering sin pollutes not only the people but it also pollutes the sacred spaces where they worship

Now the second goat in the equation remains alive Aaron lays both hands on its head and Confesses all of the people's sins over this goat not just their vague wrongdoing every one of their iniquities all of their transgressions all of their sins and then

The goat is led away into the wilderness and set free Carrying all of the guilt of the people of Israel with it

Outside of the camp one of the goat dies and one goat departs sin is paid for and it's removed

That's what Leviticus 16 is pointing to now Leviticus 17 grounds Everything in the theology of blood life is in the blood blood belongs to God It's given on the altar in order to make atonement for sin worship is then

Centralized sacrifices cannot be casual or privatized Atonement is not just a folk ritual among a particularized people.

It's covenantally Regulated and it applies to all people on earth Leviticus 18 then turns abruptly but deliberately to sexual ethics and the logic here is clear

Atoned people do not live like pagans from Egypt atone people don't imitate the practices of Canaan this chapter prohibits things like incest adultery child sacrifice homosexuality and other sexual perversions that are characterized by the surrounding nations

And you might even ask yourself why place this here right after such an important religious ceremony like the

Day of Atonement. Well It's because theology is never abstract. It always is downstream of something theology

Eventually explodes out of our fingertips it touches the body it touches desire It even touches what we do in the bedroom and the land itself.

Therefore we are told vomits out the nations who practice these defiled and sexual perversions because sin is not merely

Personal it destabilizes any society that produces it So when we look at our own society here, we can even see that God if he is faithful to his word

Which he always is will vomit America out of his mouth If we do not repent from the kinds of sexual perversions that are listed in Leviticus chapter 18

Now as you read this, I want you to ask the following question What does it take to remove this kind of sin and what kind of life must follow after the sin has been removed?

Leviticus 16 through 18 shows that atonement is costly Comprehensive but it's also transformative and that's because the central pattern in these chapters is that cleansing leads to Consecration when you're atoned it leads to a consecrated life

The Day of Atonement doesn't eliminate our need for obedience. It actually makes obedience possible

The sanctuary is cleansed The people are forgiven but forgiveness is never a permission slipped to drift back

Into the kinds of perversions that characterize pagan people and this speaks directly to us because we often want the

Scapegoat without the standards we want guilt removed without desires reformed. We want forgiveness without formation

That's especially true in our nation that celebrates these kinds of wicked perversions

But Leviticus doesn't allow for that if sin truly Contaminates then cleansing must be thorough and it must be deep if blood represents

Life then atonement must be costly even to the cost of death and if sin truly

Corrupts a culture then holiness must reach beyond private behavior and it must become systemic and cultural and corporate

The Day of Atonement in that way is not just sentimental or privatized religion

It is surgical for the corporate and national health of the people of Israel It is there to protect their society from being vomited out like all of the nation's

Now Leviticus 16 through 18 also points us Unmistakably to Jesus Christ and in layered and also in powerful ways

The high priest enters once a year into the holy place and that anticipates Christ who enters into the true heavenly

Sanctuary as the book of Hebrews says not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood that was shed on the cross the slain goat foreshadows the

Substitution where Christ is gonna die directly for his people The scapegoat foreshadows the removal as far as the

East is from the West the guilt that is carried away by the finished work Of Jesus in the

Old Covenant this had to happen every single year But in Jesus it happens once and for all and notice this

Jesus is crucified outside of the city outside of the camp Burying the reproach just like the scapegoat has the sins of the people placed over him and it's cast outside of the city

That's the same thing that happened to Jesus Leviticus 17's insistence that life is in the blood is

Totally fulfilled at the cross where the greatest life was poured out so that you and I could have life

Leviticus 18's called a sexual holiness finds its fulfillment in the Spirit's work because just as such were some of you in sexual sin now by the

Spirit's transformational power and the atonement coming to work and to bear on the life of the sinner those sins are now being

Repented of and left in favor of holiness and sanctification in Christ Atonement is accomplished and holiness is made possible because of his shed blood on the cross now

As you read Leviticus 16 through 18 today I want you to linger on the fact that this is right at the heart of the book everything revolves around this atonement and tomorrow we're gonna see how holiness extends outward into the justice and compassion and economy and fairness and the love of neighbor and all of the different aspects of life in Society, but with that I want you to read your

Bible carefully Devotionally and joyfully and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow.