All right, so as we're getting started here, I want to review where we have been so that we know where we are. If you don't know where you have been, you don't know where you are or where you're going. And so we're doing our Old Testament survey, and one of the key verses that I've had before you at the beginning of our Old Testament survey is Romans 15.4 on the screen for you. Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. So as we endure in the Christian life we need the encouragement of the scriptures and the things that were written in former days are part of that encouragement to us and remember that whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction which includes the book of Leviticus. Now I think that the authors of our textbook and the speakers in our video have done a good job of pointing out that while the Old Testament wasn't written to us, it was written for us. That Leviticus is written to the people of Israel and yet it is still written for our instruction and that God has included it as a part of His book to the nations, to the world, and that it contains foundational truths for Christianity in a biblical worldview, a Judeo-Christian worldview, as you might call it. And so I want to reground the faith of the church, particularly this church, but hopefully through our limited influence spreading to other churches as well. The Old Testament, the New Testament faith has its roots in the Old Testament faith and so we need to read it, we need to understand it, we need to believe it. That's the most important part. You read it and you understand it so that you can believe the things that are written and without faith it is impossible to please Him. So, as we've been going through then the Old Testament, as we call it, We have discovered that most of our Bible is, in fact, Old Testament. Do you recall what percentage of the Bible, roughly, is the Old Testament? We talk in half, we talk in three quarters. What kind of percentage are we looking at? Yep, you got your notes there in front of you? 78. So, you know, if you just remember a little more than three-fourths of the Bible is Old Testament, that's an easy way to keep it in mind. And then when it comes to the Old Testament, we have one giant book at the beginning of the Old Testament that accounts for a quarter of that three-fourths. So what's a fourth of three-fourths? We'll skip the math for now. But we're talking about the Torah. We're talking about the Pentateuch as one book and that's misleading, it's confusing, it's hard for us to understand that because in our Bibles it's broken up as five different books and so when you see a list of the 66 books of the Bible, well you think that Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus are all separate books. But actually that's not the case. We have broken them down into individual parts but Originally and in their structure, in their purpose, they are one giant story, one giant book that starts with what we call Genesis. So the first 50 chapters of the Torah has its own structure. And we can see that structure by the literary analysis of the book and seeing repeated phrases and themes throughout the book that give us clues into the structure of the book. But when it comes to a thematic outline of the book, What is one way to structure the book of Genesis? What was the outline that we gave you for the book of Genesis? Do you remember how it broke down? Yeah, so we broke it down into two parts. You've got the first 11 chapters, and then you've got the last 39 chapters. And the first 11 chapters are the history of the world up until the time of Abraham. And then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are the four men who are focused on then in chapters 12 through 50, which is the bulk of the book. Now, once again, we spend the bulk of our time in the first 11 chapters because we find the creation and the fall and the flood and the Tower of Babel all to be very fascinating from a historical standpoint. But God's focus in the Torah is not on the nations and creation, fall, flood, and Babel. Those are just included in order to get us up to speed to be able to understand the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, who are these patriarchs that are going to be the foundation for the nation of Israel. And so when you think about the Torah, think about it as the formation of the nation of Israel. That's what the Torah is. And so, Genesis starts that off. The purpose of Genesis, therefore, is to introduce us to the nation of Israel through the patriarchs. So then, you come into the second part of the Torah that we call Exodus, right? So, as we're going from Genesis to Exodus, remember, we're still the Torah. This is one book. It's really just continuing the story on. And so when you get into what we call Exodus, you're really just reading the second scroll of the Torah. And the Hebrew people had a name for the book of Exodus. Do you remember what the Hebrew name for the book of Exodus was? These are the names. That's how the book starts off. So they just take the first few words of each book and that's what they call it. And last week we emphasized that the book of Exodus is actually somewhat mistitled. Again, because the title only focuses on the first part of the book. And so we also broke down the book of Exodus into two halves. And what was the first half? Redemption or the Exodus. And then the second half is the entrance into the covenant. So the book of Exodus is not really just the Exodus, but it's the Exodus and the entrance into the covenant at Mount Sinai. So when you're thinking about the Torah, think about the nation of Israel and their covenants with God. The Abrahamic covenant that then leads into the Sinaitic covenant or the Mosaic covenant. That's really what the Torah is all about. The creation of Israel, including their covenant relationship with God, which is the most important thing about Israel is their covenant relationship with the God who created all things. All right, so the purpose of Exodus, we said, was that Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he delivered the sons of Israel from bondage in Egypt and entered into a covenant with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. So Exodus from Egypt, entrance into the covenant. That's the second part of the Torah. And so today, we're ready to move into the third part of the Torah, which we call Leviticus. Yes. Of course, that's not what the Hebrews called it. The Hebrews called it, and he called. Look at Leviticus chapter 1 verse 1 there, and you see the first words of the book, the Lord called to Moses. Now, in Hebrew, it doesn't say the Lord called to Moses, it says, and he called. And they start this book with the word and. Now, if you're starting a book with the word and, that gives you a clue that this is not a new story, this is not a new book, this is continuing what had come before. And so, what was happening at the end of Exodus? Well, you look at Exodus chapter 40, and you see that the glory of the Lord entered into the tent of meeting and filled the tabernacle there in verse 34. And then it ends talking about how the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day in verse 38, Fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So you've got God dwelling in the tent with the camp of Israel all around the tent and the people of Israel can see visually that God is dwelling in their camp because of the cloud during the day and the fire in the night. And so you could look out your tent window, so to speak. Tents don't have windows, but the opening of your tent And you could see, well there's the cloud of the Lord over the tabernacle. At night you could see the fire of the Lord inside the tabernacle and you knew that God was dwelling among your people, your nation. So that's kind of the whole point of the book of Exodus. You've come out from slavery, now you belong to the Lord. Pharaoh was the one who was ruling over you, now the Lord is the one who is your lawgiver. The Lord is the one who is your provider. The Lord is the one who is going to lead you and guide you. When the cloud goes up and starts to move, you pick up your tents and you start to move. That the Lord is their leader. He's now the one who owns them and he's a much better master, he's a much better king than Pharaoh was to the people of Israel. Pharaoh was a wicked man, an oppressor, evil, unjust, but the Lord is righteous, the Lord is holy, the Lord is good, and the Lord is faithful. And so there's this movement of the people out of slavery into relationship with Yahweh. That's the big idea of the book of Exodus. And so it leads right into Leviticus. Now that the temple, if I say temple, you know I mean tabernacle, now that the tabernacle has been erected, it's been constructed, it's been built, it's been sanctified, the priests are prepared, and now God is dwelling among his people, now the question is, how do the people of Israel live with God in tents? Here we are in our tents, there's God in his tent, how are we supposed to live together? That's what the book of Leviticus is all about. And so I put there on your handout, let's take a look at the top of the handout, some parts of the Bible are not fun to read. Inspiration doesn't require all the scripture to be fascinating to us. It doesn't have to be a page turner in order to be God's Word. The book of Leviticus plays an important role in the Bible, though it is often overlooked. This book's lists of laws regarding sacrifice and diet and disease and social behavior may not seem very relevant to us, but all of these lists are actually very vital to understanding God's holiness and our sanctification. It's not written to us, but it is written for us, and so we need to read it, learn from it, meditate on it, teach it, appreciate it, to ground our faith in the book of Leviticus, even though It's not our covenant. We relate to God through the New Covenant. We don't have a tabernacle where God's glory dwells, and we don't have an altar, and we don't have the most holy place, and we don't have a high priest with priestly garments, and we don't have very many lambs or goats or bulls or any of that to offer. We're not doing all this stuff, but all this stuff is teaching us. So we look back and we understand Why did God do it? Why did He set up His relationship with His covenant people of Israel this way in the very beginning of their relationship? We moved on from the beginning of our humanity's relationship with God in the redeeming covenants. But you can't forget what God taught you in those beginning covenants. It's kind of like learning your ABCs in school. You don't go to 12th grade and learn the alphabet. You need to have known the alphabet from kindergarten so that you can read the books that they give you in twelfth grade. And that's kind of the way it is with the Bible. You're not in kindergarten anymore, you're not living under the laws of Leviticus, but if you haven't learned the lessons of Leviticus, then you're not going to do well in twelfth grade, which is our New Testament studies. And there's a lot of missed lessons from kindergarten that people who now misunderstand, misinterpret, misapply the New Testament because they didn't ground their faith in the ABCs of the Bible. So these are the ABCs of the Bible that are essential. These are the most important lessons. Everything I needed to know in life I learned in kindergarten. Everything you need to know about God's holiness, you learn in Leviticus. We've got to go back to the beginning. Let's look at the title and the structure of the book. We talked about the English title, well, we mentioned the English title, let's talk about it. Leviticus. It's a Latin root word, means of the Levites, matters concerning the Levites. You see the word Levite there in the beginning. Now, that title is also slightly misleading, so let me clarify that most of the book is not actually written to the Levites, but it's Moses speaking to the people. You'll read this over and over again. If you read the book, we're encouraging you to read the book, do the readings. If you read the book, you'll notice that over and over again it says, God called to Moses and told him, say to the people of Israel. Then you've got a whole chapter or two of Moses saying to the people what God told him to say to the people. It doesn't say, say to the Levites. It says, say to the people. So God wanted the people to understand what the role of the Levites was. So the people have a part to play in this drama of forgiveness, sacrifice, redemption that is going to be taking place at the tabernacle. The Levites don't do everything. The people are involved with the process of the sacrifice. But the Levites are the ones who are charged with making sure that everything is done according to the law. But God wants the people to understand what's going on and what's being done. So it's not like the people just take their sacrifice to the Levites and it's like, well you guys take care of our relationship with God and we don't need to know anything about it. No, God wants the people to understand what's going on at the tabernacle. So there's this principle of mediation and sacrifice that's being established in the book of Leviticus, but God doesn't want just the priestly class to be learning this. Not like, well, the only people who have to worry about that are the priests. That's their business. No. Everybody needs to understand what's happening, and so Moses speaks to the people. So don't think Leviticus is just Moses teaching the Levites how to do temple stuff. Moses is teaching Israel what is going to be happening at the temple with the Levites being the priests. So, very important distinction there. Clarification on the title of the book. Let's take a look at the outline of the book there. on your handout, letter B, the outline. We have the way to God in chapters 1-17 and this focuses on the sacrificed and the priests. And then you could divide it at chapter 18 and say chapters 18-27 are our walk with God. And if you wanted to just use one word to describe these two halves of the book, so Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the outline that I've given you, it's all two parts. So it's pretty easy to remember. And here in Leviticus, once again, a two-part outline, sacrifice and sanctification. Sacrifice and sanctification. You can remember it with just those two words. Now, when we're talking about the sacrifice in chapters 1 through 17, The sacrifices themselves are detailed in the first seven chapters. If you read it, it was a little tedious. It wasn't the most exciting reading. But what you should notice as you read those first seven chapters of Leviticus is that there are different types of sacrifices. Anybody remember how many different kinds of sacrifices as you read through Leviticus? How many were there? Five. There were five different sacrifices. And they weren't all for sin or for guilt, but some of the sacrifices were for thanksgiving or for fellowship. So there would be gifts and sacrifices that were offered to God that would be atoning sacrifices, but there were also gifts and sacrifices that were offered to God that were just free will offerings. You weren't atoning for any sin, you were just paying a vow because you were thankful for something that God had done or You were just celebrating your relationship with God and you wanted to have a sacrifice at the temple. So recognize that not all of the sacrifices were sin offerings or guilt offerings. And then after those first seven chapters on sacrifices, you have three chapters about the priests in chapters eight through 10, setting apart of the priests and the priestly work. And then you've got several chapters about purity in chapters 11 through 15, And then you get to one of the key chapters that we're actually going to read, chapters 16 through 17 on atonement. But then the second half of the book, it just has a lot of various laws that have to do with the subject of holiness. The root word for holiness is the same as the root word for sanctification in the Hebrew, and so that's going to be one of the major themes when we get into the themes and the purposes of the book next. However, I just wanted to refresh your memory by putting the outline for Genesis back up here. You see we've got the two parts separated by the hinge here. You've got the four events before chapter 12, before Abraham. Then you've got four people that are talked about after chapter 12. So just a reminder of the structure of Genesis. And then the theme here, God promises to redeem and bless his people. So the formation of the nation and the initial giving of the Abrahamic covenant which was then passed on to Isaac and Jacob. And then as we got into the second part of the Torah, we looked at the book of Exodus where we had the theme of liberation and also being brought into that covenant, worshiping God. And so the break between the two halves of the book could be anywhere in here, whether you want chapter 15 to be the break, because there's kind of a period of where they're en route to Mount Sinai. So you've got Egypt and Sinai, and then you've got en route. So some people have a three-part outline for Exodus. Here you see kind of a five-part, but I like to keep it simple with two parts. So just Exodus and the entrance into the covenant. but then that means that a few of these chapters in the middle you could either put with the Exodus or with the entrance into the covenant because it's kind of a transition between the two. So, in the book of Exodus one of the parts that we didn't have a lot of time to talk about last week was the construction of the tabernacle and this is a big part of the book of Exodus as God gives the details about how to build this outer wall, how to build these structures in the middle, the bronze altar as it says here in Exodus 27, 1-8. how big the courtyard is supposed to be, how about the golden table for the bread in here, the golden lampstand, the altar of incense, that God in the book of Exodus gave details for every part of this structure so that it had to be constructed exactly according to God's design. He didn't just say, build me a tabernacle however you want, but that God had a specific purpose in mind for every element that he included in the structure of his tent, his tabernacle, his dwelling on earth. This is the one place on earth where the God who created the earth was going to dwell among people. And so it's a very, very sacred, very, very important place. And then the book of Leviticus is, well, what are the priests supposed to do in here? What do they do at the bronze altar? And when do they go into the most holy place? And what about the Day of Atonement here and the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of Holies? So that's what we're studying is The book of Leviticus is the people of Israel dwelling with God in his tent with the sacrifices, the offerings, the holy days, the laws, purification, sanctification, all of that. You've got to be holy if you're going to dwell with God. And then I also had this slide that I didn't have time for last week about the Ark of the Covenant itself and how God gave instructions on its construction and gave the tablets of the law to go inside as well as Aaron's rod that budded and the jar of manna as God provided. So you've got the law, you've got the priesthood, you've got God's provision, his providence, all being symbolized in the Ark as the cherubim cover the holiness of God and this is where the high priest is going to go once a year in order to make atonement for the sins of the people before the Ark of God's covenant. Covenant, key word, right? Alright, so then that brings us to the book of Leviticus and we just went over the outline. I wanted you to see it up here on the screen. You've got the way to God and then the walk with God with the focus on sacrifice here for what they used for ritual, whereas here we use the word sanctification. So you see some overlap there between the outline that I've given you and what Swindoll used when he was doing his Old Testament survey. And we're going to focus on some of these key verses as well as we get into the theme of how sinful humanity should worship a holy God. really how sinful Israel, here I think you can limit it to Israel, that this is God's covenant with Israel, this is how Israel should worship and live with a holy God, the holy God, in their presence. And that the key word here is holy, appearing 90 times in the book. Actually I think it's more than that, didn't I put on your outline? The root word for holiness actually occurs about 150 times in the 27 chapters according to my professor's count, not just the word holiness, but all the variations of the word holiness, bringing the count up to 150 there in the book from that same root word. So let's take a look at the themes and the purpose on the handout that I gave you. Turn in your Bibles to Leviticus 19.2. We've got Leviticus open before you. Let's look at chapter 19, verse 2. How does verse 1 start? Somebody read verse 1 for us. Alright, so just the way that the book started, right? The Lord spoke to Moses. And so you're going to see that. Leviticus is, if you put God's words in red letters, it's a very red letter book. God speaking to Moses and calling to Moses, telling the people of Israel God's word. And God says speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel. Again, it doesn't say speak to the Levites. It says speak to all of the congregation of Israel, and say to them, You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." So there's the big idea, the big theme, holiness, and the command to holiness based upon God's own holiness. This is a command that's repeated, you can also read it in chapter 11 verse 45 in slightly different words, but it is a summary, it's the thrust of the whole book. And notice verses three and following where God then reiterates some of the Ten Commandments. That to be holy means you obey God's commandments. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father. That's the fifth commandment, right? You shall keep my Sabbath. That was the fourth commandment. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal. That would be the first and second commandments there. I am the Lord your God. And then he goes on and talks about peace offerings and sacrifices. and loving your neighbor as yourself. A little bit later here in Leviticus 19. So holiness is the obedience but also the sacrifices and the ritual and the holy days and the clean and unclean foods and purification and all of that. So it's all a part of this holiness. And what is holiness? What does it mean when we say that God is holy? How are we supposed to share in that holiness of God? And so I put on your sheet there that there's a majesty holiness of God and there's a purity holiness of God. If you study holiness throughout the whole Bible, you get kind of this dual thrust, this dual emphasis of a holiness that emphasizes the majestic nature of God, that he is set apart, that he is high, that he is distinct, that he is separate from his creation. Now we can't be separate and high and majestic like God and so when God is saying you shall be holy, he's saying you shall have the purity holiness and really that's the focus here in Leviticus is on that purity holiness of God that he's set apart from sin, he's distinct from sin, he's separated from what is unclean, from what is common and so his people need to share in that purity holiness. It's a wholesomeness, it's a moral perfection, a moral beauty, that is God's moral holiness of purity. Some people have described holiness as the otherness of God, as his essential nature and his selfhood. Now we can't share in God's selfhood in that sense or his essential nature or his distinction from creation. That's more of the majesty holiness. But we do share in that purity holiness of God and that's the command of God here. One of the key concepts in holiness is the idea of cleanness. And so you see clean and unclean, holy and profane as contrasts. So you can understand a thing by understanding its opposite. If you want to understand what holiness is, then you look at, well, what is profane, or what is unholy? If you want to understand what cleanness is, then you look at, well, it's the opposite of what is unclean. Turn to Leviticus chapter 10, verse 10. Here in Leviticus 10 you've got the death of Nadab and Abihu at the beginning of the chapter and we have time permitting we'll talk more about that. But come down to verse 10 and somebody read out loud for the group Leviticus 10 10. Okay, so there you have it. The holy and the common. Common could also be translated as profane and between the unclean and the clean. Now, as you go through the book, there's all kinds of things that are in the unclean category, whether it's some kind of bodily discharge from disease, or it's a leprosy, there's even like mold on the house, which is kind of compared to a leprosy on the skin, that there's all these things, including human excrement, that are in the category of unclean, including certain animals that are unclean. and that the people of Israel are not allowed to eat certain animals. And that's a fascinating area of study and discussion of why are certain animals clean and certain animals unclean and what's the difference and why did God choose those things. We're not going to get into all that today, obviously. We don't have time for everything. But just this basic principle of clean versus unclean. Now one of the things that Professor Essex brought out as he was teaching the Old Testament survey on Leviticus was the question of why is childbirth unclean? If you read through Leviticus and you saw some of the things about clean and unclean, you notice that a woman would be unclean after she gave birth to a child. And that's an interesting question. Why should that be unclean? Well, there is a lot of bodily fluids involved with childbirth, and it's not the cleanest of things just from a human perspective. But I liked what Professor Essex brought out, and he said that while childbirth existed before the Fall, and there's a certain holiness, a certain beauty, a certain wonderful nature of it, but that now after the fall, you're giving birth to a sinner. And so you're actually increasing the sin in the world by bringing a sinner into the world. And that this could be, it doesn't say explicitly, but this could be one of the reasons why childbirth is marked off as unclean in the book of Leviticus. There's a certain time period that the mother would be unclean after giving birth. Again, this is Old Testament Leviticus. These are not our covenants, our laws today. You don't have to worry about being unclean this morning or anything along those lines. But God was giving some lessons and some ideas here. And one of the things that people have noted and had a question about, in particular with this law, is Why would the mother be unclean for twice as long if she had a daughter? This seems awfully sexist. I think it was one week that she was unclean if she had a son. It was two weeks that she was unclean if she had a daughter. And people are like, well, that seems irrational. That seems archaic. That seems barbaric and sexist. And how could anyone believe a Bible that has such arcane and stupid laws as this? And I liked what Professor Essex said. He said, well, it doesn't say explicitly, but probably, He thought the reason is that when you're giving birth to a daughter, you're giving birth to someone who is going to give birth to more sinners. And so this is just the idea of reminding us that we are sinners, and that we're giving birth to sinners, and we give birth to people who are going to give birth to more sinners, and that we're increasing the sin in the world by multiplying because of our sin. and that God is trying to teach us this basic principle of you are unclean and your offspring are unclean and unless you are sanctified by the blood of the covenant you will not be able to approach God and have a relationship with God. So don't join in with the world and thinking that the Bible is nonsense and foolishness but instead believe the Word of God, look for the lessons that God is teaching you, and try to understand why did God do the things that he did and gave the laws that he did. Alright? So, a little bit there about cleanness and uncleanness, holy and profane. We don't want a profane church, we want a holy church. We don't want unclean hearts, we want clean hearts. So that we can enjoy a right relationship with the God who is clean and the God who is holy. Perfectly so. So then, the second major theme on your outline is the theme of sacrifice. And here you've got priesthood, and I like what Swindoll said, I listened to his message on Leviticus this week. He said, when you think about priest, just think mediator. If you just exchange the word mediator for priest, whenever you read it, you have a pretty good understanding of what a priest is. Because the idea of priesthood is one that's kind of lost upon our culture. and has to be kind of reintroduced and reemphasized. So just giving a simple word for word translation like mediator helps us to understand. You're not going to have a full understanding of priesthood just by using the word mediator, but it's a good start. And so the priests are a major part in the instructions to the people about the priests so that the people understand who the priests are and what the priests are doing and why the priests are doing it. And then that principle of substitution. Now notice that in contrast to many of the rituals and sacrifices of the pagans, the nations in the ancient world, there's no human sacrifice in the book of Leviticus. God forbids human sacrifice and yet that was something that was common in the ancient world. And so you want to notice the differences between what God sets up and what God tells the people to do versus what the nations around Israel were doing. And some of those differences are some of the things you really want to highlight and focus on. Now, the sacrifices, the priesthood, there's It's something that's going on all year long. But Leviticus focuses in on one special day, and I want to make sure that we don't run out of time to read it. So turn with me in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 16. There's one chapter in the book of Leviticus that you should be familiar with and read. It's Leviticus 16, about the Day of Atonement. This is probably the heart of the book, the most holy day, the most important thing that God says to the people of Israel in the book of Leviticus, that has the most instruction for us to be able to understand the nature of atonement, as you see that that is the key word there, the day of atonement. And atonement is such an important word in the Bible. So I think on your handout, I have chapter 16, the day of blank, the day of atonement, if you want to write that in there. So let me just read it for you as the heart of the book here. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they drew near before the Lord and died. That's Nadab and Abihu back in chapter 10. And the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark so that he may not die. So just like Nadab and Abihu died when they approached God in the way they weren't supposed to, Aaron, be careful. that you don't come into the most holy place except for this one time a year. You can't just come whenever you want. You come when I tell you, how I tell you, exactly how I tell you, or you will die when you approach God. So he says, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron, the high priest and the high priest after him, shall come into the holy place. So if you're a high priest, this is a pretty important chapter to you. I don't want to screw this up. My life depends upon this. I'm going to pretty much memorize this chapter, be able to say it in my sleep. How am I going to come before the Lord? I'm going to come with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. So a bull and a ram. Sin offering and a burnt offering. You can read about sin offering and burnt offerings in the opening chapters, right? He shall put on the holy linen coat that he told them about in Exodus. and shall have the linen undergarments on his body and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and put them on and he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement, there's our word, for himself. So first he's got to make atonement for himself and for his own house. then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel now that's an interpretive issue that we probably won't have time to talk about today is what or who is Azazel but anyway moving on and Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. And he shall take a censer full of coals and fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil, and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel. There's our word uncleanness, right? And because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so shall he do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness. So this whole camp is unclean and God's cleanness is dwelling among this unclean people so there has to be a purification, there has to be a sacrifice, there has to be a cleansing of the people so that God can live with them without destroying them. No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time that he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around." So if we back up here to the altar, so he was in here before the mercy seat and then he goes out to the altar and sprinkles the blood there. To give you some idea of what's going on here. Back in verse 19, he sprinkles some of the blood on it with his fingers seven times and cleanses it and consecrates it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel. So the people are unclean, they have to be cleansed from their uncleanness. And when he had made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat and Aaron shall lay both his hands. You can picture the high priest, his priestly garments on, he's made the sacrifices, he's sprinkled the blood, he's got The live goat, he puts both of his hands on the goat, he confesses over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions. Now obviously he can't know every single sin that every single Israelite has committed in the last year, but he's going to have a long list that's representative. The people of Israel have committed adultery, they've divorced their wives, they've worshipped a different god, they grumbled when they didn't have water, and they grumbled about the manna, They made the golden calf and they go on and on and just list all the sins of the people of Israel. They broke the Sabbath and they had lawsuits against one another and a man killed his brother and goes on and on. So I don't know how long it took him to confess all the transgressions of all their sins but probably wasn't too short. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the holy place and shall leave them there. And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. And it shall be a statute to you forever, In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves. It is a statute forever. And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement, wearing the holy garments. He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. And he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins. And Aaron did as the Lord had commanded Moses. interesting, fascinating. That's why when they had the tabernacle experience set up in Lincoln, I thought, well, you need some goats or some bulls or some blood. You need something here to let us know what's going on in this tabernacle. It's not just a pretty meeting place where you sing hymns and have church. This is a place of slaughter and sacrifice and blood and burning and incense and all of that. And so you got to have the sights and the smells to go along with the tabernacle. And then imagine keeping all this clean after all the sacrifices are being made there. It's a lot of work. And so that's why you had the Levites. Their job was just to do this. All right, so we're running low on time, so let's really move along here. Note chapter 17, verse 11, key verse. It is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. So God institutes the principle very early that a sacrifice is able to make atonement because of the blood and why is it the blood well because the blood being poured out represents the life being given and so later today when we have communion and we partake of the cup that represents the blood it's the blood of the covenant that is poured out for many as Jesus said because he's giving his life it's the life of Christ that is given that atones for our sins that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world so an altar A sacrifice, the blood, the priesthood, all of that is what informs the work of Christ. Without these concepts, you don't understand the cross. The cross makes sense in light of what we learn in Leviticus. It's the blood that makes atonement. Alright, so Nadab and Abihu in chapter 10 is also important there when we're talking about priesthood and sacrifice. Your life depends upon doing it exactly the way God said. Don't think you can just make it up as you go. and everything's going to be fine. God just welcomes everybody and his door is open anytime. You can come to God in any way that pleases you. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible says, you come my way or you die. That's what we have in the Old Testament and the New Testament. You come through Christ or you die. Going through Muhammad is not going to get you there. Going through Joseph Smith is not going to get you there. going through any so-called prophet or any other religion or any other way, no matter how sincere, you come God's way or you die. So then the law is also a key part here. We're not just talking about the laws concerning sacrifice and offering and the Day of Atonement, which is more of what we just talked about, which is included in the law, but here we're talking about the calendars, the festivals in chapters 23 to 25, God's attitude towards sorcery and witchcraft and mediums, deserving of death as it talks about in chapter 20 verses 6 through 8. But one of the things I really want to focus on in the time that we have left, I can't believe how quickly it goes, is Leviticus chapter 26. Leviticus chapter 26 is another key chapter in the book of Leviticus. If you want to skip parts of Leviticus because you're out of time, don't skip the Day of Atonement in chapter 16. and the blessings for obedience and the punishments for disobedience in chapter 26. I wish I could read this chapter for you as well, we don't have time, but we will come back to this idea again in Deuteronomy, because Deuteronomy is also going to end with the blessing for obedience and the curse for disobedience, and I think maybe Numbers even has that too, I'm trying to refresh my memory, but this idea of blessing for obedience and curse for disobedience is at the heart of the Torah as well. Now one thing I didn't say earlier I want to make sure you get is that the book of Leviticus is 30 days at Mount Sinai. That God slows things down. The first 11 chapters cover thousands of years of history and then the rest of Genesis several hundred years of the patriarchs and then Exodus has mostly just focusing on a couple of years but then you got 30 days here in the book of Leviticus. So God slows down. This is the center. This is the most important part. This is what everything else was building up to, leading to Leviticus. And yet, it's the book that we understand the least, that we appreciate the least, that we ignore the most, that never gets preached. But this is the heart of the Torah. This is the heart of the foundation of the Bible. And so I can't overemphasize how important Leviticus is to the groundwork for understanding God's redeeming covenants. relationship of Israel with God and then our relationship with the same God through the extension of the Abrahamic Covenant and the replacement of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. So chapter 26, read it, very important chapter. Let's talk about the purpose of the book here in our closing moments. You have that on your outline. Yahweh gave instruction to Israel so that they might maintain fellowship with him. The priesthood functioning in the tabernacle is the centerpiece of the Torah. Let me say that again. The priesthood functioning in the tabernacle is the centerpiece of the Torah. This is what the Torah is about. The most important book to the Jews. The first book the Jews teach their children is the book of Leviticus. It's the last book we teach our children. And, you know, something's not quite right about that. Holiness, I didn't put this on your sheet, but holiness, that is sanctification, is the key to this fellowship. If Yahweh is going to maintain fellowship with an unholy people, then sanctification, the process of making them clean, making them holy, is key to that relationship. God is not going to lessen His holiness to meet them halfway. They are going to have to become holy to dwell with God. God doesn't say, well, I'm holy, you're unholy, I'll be a little less holy, you be a little more holy, and we can dwell together. No. God says, I'm going to sanctify you, I'm going to purify you, I'm going to bring you to my holiness so that we can have a relationship. That's what the book of Leviticus is about. We already talked about some of the interpretive issues, but you can talk about those with your family. You can email me or call me if you have questions about the unauthorized fire Why the unclean animals? Or what does atonement exactly mean in the book of Leviticus? And then the last one, what does it mean to be cut off from your people? You see that over and over again. I gave you all the references there from chapter 7 verse 20 up to chapter 23 verse 29 where God says, the penalty for certain sins is to be cut off from the people. Well, what does that mean? And so there's several options that I put on your sheet. And if you want to know what I believe, you can ask me. All right. Hopefully, you now have a better appreciation, a better understanding of the book of Leviticus that when you read it in the future, you will be benefited and you'll be able to understand while it's not fun to read, it is important to understand.