Mission in Action

A very funny Christian cartoon has an austere looking man sitting in a chair with a side table and a glass of water, with a tapestry on the wall saying “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.” Chris is reading a book entitled “Notes on Leviticus, Vol XIII”. ?

To be honest that’s how many people view Leviticus – a difficult and stark read, only for those who are humourless. ? To add to that there are a number of verses in there that our culture has a real go at especially those pertaining to sexuality. ? If that wasn’t enough there are many in the Christian world who question the kind of God who requires the quantity and exactitude of those sacrifices.

That does this important book a great disservice – especially in light of the whole Bible and God’s unfolding plan of salvation. ? The constant refrain of Leviticus is the call for holiness in the light of God’s holiness. Yet the constant problem that the continuous sacrifices highlight is the lack of holiness among God’s gathered people in the desert (and by extension all people) and God’s gracious provision of a way of approaching him without being made into toast.

By the time you get to the end of Leviticus you have a right to feel exhausted and unsure of how you are going to manage all of those sacrifices. ? Yet if God is going to dwell in the midst of his people, then there is no other way. ? Besides the desire of Moses to have God dwell among his people, and their desire to have God go with them, is so strong that they are willing to do all of this just to be close to the Holy One. ?

What an astounding relief when Jesus comes and imputes to us the clean standing that Leviticus can only hint at with its myriad sacrifices. The sharp contrast between the old and the new is highlighted in Hebrews when we are reminded that day after day the priests stood offering sacrifices that could not take away sin, yet Jesus offered himself once, then sat down, having completed his work by providing the final sacrifice that dealt with sin decisively. ? If you’re from Perth you’ll recall the Lotto Powerball advertising campaign in which a very bored production line worker is repeating the same action every three seconds. ? The weary worker looks up and says “One Powerball and I’m out of here”. ? That’s what Jesus’ sacrifice does to the whole Leviticus thing.

BTW – I often do wonder why people are so quick to dismiss substitutionary atonement as not being central to the cross, when so much of the OT is build upon the very notion. ? It seems a little strange that God would go to all that trouble to shadow something in the OT if it did not have a reality in the NT.

?

?

written by