A Journey through Torah

Introduction

I have been told Leviticus is the most boring book in the entire Bible. Well, while I admit this book of scripture lacks the excitement and the action narrative of Genesis and Exodus, it contains some important teachings for all of us today on the issues of holiness, being separated for GOD.

Is it any wonder believers today have such a difficulty in appreciating what ADONAI, GOD, shares with us in the third book of His Word? This was a different world entirely. This was a world where people lived in tents or small cities. Here they gathered in the open spaces of the Tabernacle and brought animals to the priests for slaughter and offerings to ADONAI. This was a world and time when people were told how to dress, what cloths they could and could not wear and how they were to worship their Most Holy GOD. What a difference, compared to the times we live in today.

A second reason for our lack of interest in Leviticus lies in our loss of the crucial thread between Exodus and Leviticus. Many of us have lost the connection between the two books. This is understandable. In the last portion of Exodus, we were introduced to the Tabernacle, its construction and its function. Now, in Leviticus, we are introduced to issues focusing on the Levitical priests. Indeed, much of the book does deal with how the priests did and will function in the Temple during the end-time.

In this volume, I use the term end-time to refer to the millennial reign, when ADONAI YESHUA, the LORD JESUS, our Master will return and rule from Jerusalem for one thousand years. Others believe the end-time refers to the time after ADONAI YESHUA was resurrected, which means, of course, we are in the end-time now.

A third reason for our inability to maintain an interest in the book of Leviticus lies in its emphasis on law. For many of us, reading a book on law is hardly exciting. We do not have the stories of heroism and battle, the struggles, both physical and moral, as outlined for us in Genesis and much of Exodus. The hurdles of reading the law often are too great for many of us.

So, what is the answer to our penetrating question: how may we truly find relevance in the reading of the book of Leviticus? This is an important question, as it draws us to the heart of the problem, making meaningful connections between the Word of ADONAI here, in His third book, and our lives today.
Throughout this volume, I have used scripture from the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). This translation appears to me to best represent the English translation of the Hebrew scriptures and the Greek translation of the apostolic scriptures.

The most important issue for us today is the understanding of the cultural context of the times when Leviticus was written. To get a sense of this, let’s examine Leviticus 19:19 (HCSB). In this verse, we read, “You are to keep My statutes. You must not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock, sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material.” There are three prohibitions mentioned here: prohibiting the mating of different species; prohibiting sowing one’s field with two or more types of grain; and prohibiting the mixing of different threads to create a new fabric. We can easily see the problem that arises when different species of animals are mated. When horses are mated with donkeys, for example, we get a mule, a sterile animal that cannot reproduce. This violates ADONAI’s command to multiply and fill the earth. Sowing one’s field with different grains may not be a problem, unless you look at the mixing of barley and wheat, the two prominent grains grown in Israel at the time of the book’s writing. Barley is an early-spring grain. If wheat is planted at the same time, it will not mature as quickly. As a result, when you harvest the barley, you will be breaking the immature wheat as well, thus losing a valuable crop. But what is the problem of mixing two different types of fabric?

At the time of Moshe, there were two prominent fabrics, wool and linen. Both were used to make garments for the priests and for the common folk. The priests were required to wear linen, red and white wool, when in the sanctuary of the Tabernacle/Temple, and were required to wear wool when they left the grounds of the Tabernacle. However, the Israelites were forbidden to wear clothes made from both linen and wool. The reason for this may be found in the understanding of holiness of the priests. This will be discussed later. However, if linen was a holy fabric and wool was common, can you see how the holy might be diluted by the common? Thus, Israelites could only wear wool or linen but not both.