Day 45: Leviticus 5-7

Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's February the 14th and we'll be looking at Leviticus 5 through 7.

Now today's reading continues the logic of living with a holy God. Leviticus 5 through 7 presses the sacrificial system into the realm of everyday guilt and accountability and restoration.

If Leviticus 1 through 4 showed us that sin must be dealt with, then these chapters show us how guilt is to be confessed and forgiven and repaired.

God is not only concerned with cleansing his worshipers, but with restoring the things that sin has damaged and corroded.

And in that way, Leviticus 5 addresses specific cases of guilt. Things like sins of negligence or secrecy or ignorance.

These aren't high -handed rebellions, but they're real -life failures that still require atonement.

And God makes provision even for those who cannot afford costly sacrifices, showing that access to forgiveness is not predicated upon wealth or power, but on access to God.

Leviticus 6 then introduces the guilt offering, which adds a crucial element to the equation, which is restitution.

Forgiveness does not end with the sacrifice alone. What was wronged must be made right, and worship and ethics are inseparable.

The chapter then turns towards the priest, outlining their responsibility in handling these sacred offerings and in handling restitution between God and man.

Then Leviticus 7 completes the sacrificial instructions by summarizing the offerings and clarifying how they are to be shared and consumed.

And the whole system reinforces reverence and order and joy in worship. Forgiveness leads to fellowship, and atonement is supposed to lead back into communion with God.

Now, as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. What does genuine repentance look like when sin affects both

God and others? Leviticus 5 -7 shows that forgiveness restores relationships and not just conscience.

And in that way, the central pattern of Leviticus 5 -7 is forgiveness paired with responsibility.

God provides atonement for guilt, but he also requires confession and honesty and restitution.

You see, sin is never treated as a purely private matter. This intersects directly with our life as well, because we often want forgiveness without repair.

We want peace with God without actually addressing the harm that we've caused in our sin. And Leviticus refuses to give us that option.

Grace does not excuse responsibility, but it does empower restoration. True forgiveness leads to humility, and it leads to honesty, and it leads to change behavior, not abdication or avoidance.

And in that way, Leviticus 5 -7 points us clearly to Jesus Christ. The guilt offering anticipates

Jesus, not only bearing our sin, but also the debt that it caused as well.

Where restitution is required, Christ pays what we could never pay. And the repeated sacrifices in Leviticus highlight the limits of the old covenant system, but they prepare us for the finality of Christ's finished work, his once and for all sacrifice that will end all sacrifices.

Because in him, forgiveness is complete and restoration is secured. Christ does not merely cleanse his people of their guilt.

He reconciles relationships between God and man and among his people perfectly forever.

On the cross, Jesus says it is finished, and it was. Now, as you read

Leviticus 5 -7 today, pay close attention to how seriously God treats both forgiveness and responsibility.

And tomorrow, we're going to see how God sets priests apart for the Holy Service and why holiness in the leadership matters for the health of the entire community.

But with that, 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.