How to read Leviticus without dozing off or slaughtering a goat
The Life of Paul 5.0
Acts 15
by Eric Stillman 
December 3rd, 2006

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If you have, you know what tends to happen – you breeze through Genesis, enjoying the stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob.  Exodus starts off well, with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea.  But the rest of Exodus begins to drag a little as page after page seems to be a list of laws that God wants His people to follow and specifications for their place of worship.

And then Leviticus hits.  And somewhere around the 11th chapter, your eyes begin to glaze over, you start skipping days reading it, and before you know it you’ve given up completely.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say, “I tried reading through the Bible from beginning to end, but I got lost around Leviticus and gave up.”

The reason is simple – Leviticus is largely a book of laws, many of which seem very foreign to us today, and for good reason.  But especially for a young Christian who wants to learn God’s ways and follow him, it can be a little confusing wading through the books of the law, or Torah, as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are called.  I mean, imagine you are a young Christian reading through Exodus and Leviticus and you stumble upon verses like these:

Leviticus 19:27-28   "'Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.  ²⁸ "'Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Exodus 35:2  For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.

Exodus 21:17  "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.

Naturally, that young believer would wonder what he’s supposed to do with laws like these.  Is he sinning by clipping the hair at the sides of his head?  If he has a tattoo, does he need to go get it removed?  And what if he has a job that requires him to work Sundays?  Does he deserve to die because of it?  If he ever cursed out your parents, should the church community put him to death?

And imagine that the young man continues to read through the Torah and comes across all the regulations for worship of the Lord

Leviticus 4:27-30  "'If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, he is guilty… (and the young man thinks to himself, I’ve sinned unintentionally before… what do I need to do?) he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect.  ²⁹ He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.  ³⁰ Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

So the next time that young believer steals something by accident, he goes to a nearby farm, buys a goat, and brings it to church in order to kill it. 

Perhaps these examples are extreme, but you may have wondered at some time what a Christian is supposed to do with the law.  Do we discard it?  Do we follow it?  Follow parts?  If so, what parts?  After all, the OT contains over 600 commandments in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that Jews were expected to obey.  Are Christians expected to obey all 600 commandments?  And if not, how do we know which ones to obey?  Are we supposed to sacrifice if there is no temple?  Even if we’d be arrested for cruelty to animals?