Leviticus
Holiness unto the LORD: how a redeemed people approaches God and remains in fellowship with Him.
Exodus ends with the tabernacle erected and filled with glory; Leviticus opens with God speaking out of that tabernacle. The redeemed nation now needs to know how sinful people may draw near to a holy God and how they must live once they have been accepted. The answer comes in sacrifices, a priesthood, a calendar of feasts, and laws that touch every part of life.
Leviticus covers only about one month at Sinai, yet it contains more words spoken directly by God than any other book of the Bible. If the words of the LORD were printed in red letters, most of Leviticus would be red. Its key word is “holy,” found about ninety times, and its key verse states the purpose of the whole: “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (19:2).
Many readers find Leviticus difficult, but the book of Hebrews unlocks it. Every offering, every priestly garment, and every feast points forward to the person and work of Christ. Read beside Hebrews, Leviticus becomes one of the richest books in the Bible.
Writer: Moses
Written: About 1490–1451 BC; the instructions were given at Sinai about 1490 BC.
Name: Pertaining to the Levites
Title and authorship
The Hebrew title, Vayyiqra, “And he called,” comes from the first word. The English title comes through the Greek and Latin and means “pertaining to the Levites.” The Jews also called it the Law of the Priests and the Law of Offerings. It is the Third Book of Moses.
Moses wrote Leviticus. Fifty-six times the book says that “the LORD spake unto Moses,” and the New Testament quotes it as Moses’ writing (Matthew 8:4; Romans 10:5). It is quoted in the New Testament more than any other book of Moses.
Historical background
The camp at the foot of Mount Sinai during the first month of Israel’s second year out of Egypt, about 1490 BC. All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests; only the descendants of Aaron served at the altar.
The priests and people of Israel, who needed detailed instruction for worship, purity, and national life in covenant with a holy God.
One month at Sinai
Leviticus falls between the erection of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month (Exodus 40:17) and the census on the first day of the second month (Numbers 1:1). All of its legislation was delivered in that brief span, while the nation was camped before the mount.
Leprosy and public health
The laws on leprosy, discharges, and burial kept a crowded camp from the spread of disease centuries before germs were understood. Beyond their practical wisdom, they taught that uncleanness excludes from fellowship until it is dealt with in God’s appointed way.
The calendar of sevens
Leviticus is built around sevens: the seventh day, the seventh month with three feasts, seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, the seventh year of rest for the land, and the Jubilee after seven sabbaths of years. Israel’s later failure to keep the land sabbaths is given as a reason for the seventy years of captivity (2 Chronicles 36:21).
Key passages
Leviticus 17:11
“The life of the flesh is in the blood... it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” The foundation of the whole sacrificial system.
Leviticus 19:2
“Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” Peter applies the same standard to believers (1 Peter 1:15–16).
Leviticus 20:26
Holiness means separation: God severed Israel from other people “that ye should be mine.”
Outline
1–7 · The offerings
Burnt, meat, peace, sin, and trespass offerings regulate the worshipper’s approach to God.
8–10 · The priesthood
Aaron and his sons are consecrated; Nadab and Abihu demonstrate the seriousness of unauthorized worship.
11–17 · Cleanliness and atonement
Distinctions between clean and unclean lead to the Day of Atonement and the laws concerning blood.
18–27 · Holiness in the whole of life
Moral conduct, priests, feasts, sabbatical years, covenant consequences, and vows bring holiness into everyday practice.
Original language
קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, H6918) — “holy”
The adjective describes what is set apart from common use and devoted to God. Holiness in Leviticus is both a status (what God declares separate) and a way of life (what Israel must practice).
כָּפַר (kaphar, H3722) — “make an atonement”
To cover, to pacify, to make propitiation. Old Testament sacrifices covered sin until Christ came; Hebrews says it was “not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (10:4). The Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur.
קָרְבָּן (qorban, H7133) — “offering, oblation”
From qarab, to come near. An offering is literally something brought near, and it brings the worshiper near. Mark 7:11 preserves the word as Corban.
עֹלָה (olah, H5930) — “burnt offering”
“That which goes up.” The whole animal ascended to God in smoke as a sweet savour, picturing the complete devotion of Christ, who “gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2).
עֲזָאזֵל (azazel, H5799) — “scapegoat”
The goat of departure, which carried Israel’s confessed iniquities into a land not inhabited. With the slain goat, it shows both sides of atonement: sin judged by death and sin removed out of sight.
Doctrinal study
The five offerings
The burnt offering pictures Christ’s entire devotion to the Father; the meat (grain) offering His perfect humanity; the peace offering the fellowship His death secures; the sin offering His bearing the guilt of sin itself; and the trespass offering His making full restitution for the damage done by sin. Chapters 1–7 therefore present the cross from five angles.
The Day of Atonement and the finished work
Once a year the high priest entered the holiest with blood, and the ceremony had to be repeated year after year. Christ entered heaven itself “once” by His own blood and sat down, having “obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). No chairs stood in the tabernacle, because a Levitical priest’s work was never done.
The feasts as prophecy
Passover pictures the death of Christ; Unleavened Bread the holy walk that follows; Firstfruits His resurrection on the first day of the week; Pentecost the harvest fifty days later. The fall feasts—Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles—remain to be fulfilled in the regathering of Israel, her national repentance and cleansing, and Christ’s reign when He tabernacles among His people.
Commentary notes
Strange fire
Nadab and Abihu offered incense kindled with fire the LORD had not commanded and were consumed (10:1–2). The golden altar had to be lit with coals from the brasen altar. Worship that is not connected with the sacrifice God has provided is unacceptable, however sincere.
Two birds and the leper
In the cleansing of the leper, one bird was killed over running water and the living bird, dipped in its blood, was released into the open field (14:4–7). Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
The Jubilee
Every fiftieth year, beginning on the Day of Atonement, debts were cancelled, slaves freed, and ancestral land returned. When Christ read Isaiah 61 in Nazareth and proclaimed “the acceptable year of the Lord,” He announced the true Jubilee (Luke 4:18–19).
Christ in the book
- Every offering — one sacrifice seen from five sides (Hebrews 10:12)
- Aaron the high priest — ministering with blood before God (Hebrews 9:11–12)
- The slain and living birds — death and resurrection (Romans 4:25)
- The scapegoat — bearing sins away (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24)
- The kinsman-redeemer of chapter 25 — buying back what was lost
Applications
Historical
- The system of laws God gave Israel through Moses and the Levites: offerings, priestly consecration, clean and unclean, the Day of Atonement, the feasts, the sabbatical year, and the Jubilee. These separated the nation from the world while it lived in the wilderness after being delivered by the blood of a lamb.
- All priests are Levites, but not every Levite is a priest: the priesthood belongs to Aaron’s descendants, while other Levites assist in the nation’s service.
- The sabbatical year and Jubilee govern rest, debt, liberty, and landholding; they teach Israel that both time and land remain under God’s authority.
Doctrinal
- Leviticus looks forward to Israel’s future cleansing and national restoration. Its feasts trace God’s program from the Passover (the cross) through Pentecost to the Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles—Israel’s regathering, national repentance, and the kingdom. Read with Hebrews, it will also instruct the believing Jewish remnant of the Tribulation in true worship.
- The repeated sacrifices anticipate the sufficient sacrifice of Christ. The two goats on the Day of Atonement picture both the dealing with sin and its removal.
- The feasts present an ordered pattern for studying redemption, resurrection, gathering, and restoration while preserving their historical place in Israel’s calendar.
Devotional
- The believer’s daily walk with the Lord: access through blood, cleansing for fellowship, and a life separated to God. Leviticus is a guide to worshiping God in the wilderness of this world after being delivered by the spotless Lamb.
- Holiness extends to conduct toward neighbors, restitution for wrongs, and integrity in daily life as well as public worship.
- The judgment of Nadab and Abihu demonstrates the need for reverence and obedience among those entrusted with sacred duties.
Answering the critics
Literary critics claim that chapters 17–26 form a separate “Holiness Code” written much later, possibly influenced by or even composed by Ezekiel, because of shared vocabulary.
Similar wording is expected when one Author stands behind both books (2 Peter 1:21), and Ezekiel, a priest, naturally drew on the Law he knew. Leviticus repeatedly claims to record what the LORD spoke to Moses, the Jews to whom the oracles were committed always received it as his (Romans 3:2), and the New Testament quotes it as Scripture given through Moses.