THE CHALLENGE OF LEVITICUS

OK, let’s admit it. As Christians, we read the book of Leviticus because it’s part of the Bible. But most of us skim-read because it contains tedious details of laws that applied to an ancient people far removed from our own experience.

In fact, some things in Leviticus can be downright embarrassing; like the list of people whose nakedness must not be uncovered, or the list of defects which would disqualify people from eating the holy bread.

I've tended to counsel new Christians to read the New Testament before tackling the Old. This is partly because I didn’t want them getting into Leviticus too soon in their Christian life. For years, I would read it with an attitude of: “Praise God I’m living under the New Covenant through Jesus!  I don’t have to follow all this stuff.”

But there is another way for Christians to read Leviticus.

The third book in the Bible sets up a system of holiness. Unclean things had to be dealt with. Sin had to be atoned for. Those who would represent God to the people had to be pure and holy. But we live in an age where people have lost the sense of the extreme holiness and majesty of God. Nothing is sacred in modern Western society. Nothing is held in reverence.

In Jesus, we have grace. The New Covenant far exceeds the Old. But the God we serve is the same God that Moses served. The God who refused to dwell among uncleanness only dwells with us because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. The God who placed strict limits on who may approach Him in the tabernacle is the same God who now allows us into His presence by the new and living way that Jesus has made (Hebrews 10:20).

In the book of Leviticus, God commanded Israel to: “Be holy for I am holy” (11:44) but the same theme is carried over into the New Testament (1 Peter 1:16).  We conclude, therefore, that Leviticus reminds us that we serve a VERY holy God. The New Covenant in Christ Jesus in no way weakens the holiness of God or our obligation to live holy lives. The purpose of the New Covenant is to make it possible for us to live in such holiness.

UNBELIEVABLE!

It has been claimed, even by serious Bible academics, that the resurrection of Jesus was a sort of wish projection/ hallucination on the part of the early Christians. In other words, they so badly wanted it to be true that their imaginations ran away with them until they actually believed it.

And, despite all the evidence, some Bible “scholars” like to think that the “truth” about Jesus was gradually added to and distorted by faithful believers, until the “legend” of the resurrection finally became established as fact, maybe in the second or third century AD. (By the way, 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 completely refutes this theory.)

Lots of theories have been suggested to explain away the resurrection of Jesus, all of them starting with the assumption that the Gospel version of what happened is UNBELIEVABLE.

I love the fact that the Gospel writers were so honest about their own initial reluctance to believe. Consider Mark 16:9-14.

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.”

Clearly, this was no wish projection. The first disciples found it extremely hard to believe, as do many skeptics even today.

The testimony of those who have met Jesus doesn’t make other people automatically believe.  When the evidence mounts up sufficiently, some people will flick the switch inside from unbelief to belief, but others, like Thomas, will not believe until they experience the risen Jesus for themselves.

God Himself has purposed that believing is always a choice.  He could easily force men, women and children to admit that He is real, and therefore that Jesus is the only way to eternal life, but that’s not His way.  He gives us the choice to believe but the choice will not last forever.  The Bible clearly warns that Jesus will return to reward those who believe and rebuke those who have, right to the end, refused.

GOD’S WISDOM IN GIVING US FOUR GOSPELS

Almost everyone knows that the Bible contains four versions of the gospel story – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Not so well known are the subtle differences between them and the way this four-fold witness demonstrates the amazing wisdom of God.

Anyone who has ever done a Bible School course will know that Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels, meaning that they look at the story of Jesus in the same way, with large amounts of detail in common. But closer inspection reveals that they do, in fact, look at things differently.

Matthew seems to write with a Jewish readership in mind. He picks up on a lot of instances where Jesus fulfilled Old Testament Scriptures. Mark is more of an action gospel, seemingly suited for a Roman audience. Luke, who was Greek and addressed his gospel to a Greek man called Theophilus, brings out more of the human side of the story, including more about Jesus’ interactions with various women.

All three, therefore, proclaim the message of the Gospel in ways that different types of people can relate to. As I said, this points to the amazing wisdom of God.

The Gospel of John, perhaps surprisingly, is written to help Christians believe (John 20:31). Putting it another way, to give believers a strong foundation for believing.

I find it fascinating that, after two thousand years, all the little differences between the four gospels have survived. It must have been tempting to “correct” the apparent contradictions. Details about where He said this or that, the order in which things happened, the exact way events transpired on Resurrection Morning. The fact that we can still explore these challenging little differences proves the honesty of the gospel records and the reverence with which they have been handled through the centuries.

There is a principle in Scripture that everything is established by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15, Matthew 18:16). The fact that we have four gospels (the first one plus three corroborating witnesses) shows that our Heavenly Father wants us to know that the witness is true.

Scholars who dissect and compare the gospels, only to deny the authenticity of various passages, fail to see the big picture. The evidence for authenticity lies in the fact that four different gospels bear witness to each other and to the ultimate truth of the message of our salvation.

NOT WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT

The Bible contains many fascinating examples of human responses that are not what you would expect. There is a magnificent realism in the way human interactions are recorded. Good literature never portrays men and women as one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs but uses their actions and words to reveal interesting psychological layers.

The Bible, by this criteria, is great literature. But, in the Bible, psychological realism is not a literary device. Things are written the way they are because they happened that way, and because the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of them.

In 2 Samuel 13, we read the story of King David’s son Amnon, who loved his half sister Tamar and contrived to rape her. When the act was over, his reaction is not what you would expect. Verse 15 says that, after having raped her, he hated her more than he had ever loved her. Psychologists and experienced counselors can explain this but the Bible simply records it.

When Jesus performed amazing miracles, such as healing a man’s withered hand in a synagogue (Mark 3:1-5), the very next verse reports that “the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. “ Not what you would expect, unless of course you factored in the callousness of sin and the hardness of human hearts.

In the country of the Gadarenes (Mark 5) Jesus set a man free from a whole legion of demons. Based on reactions recorded elsewhere in the Gospels, you would expect the people of the region to respond by bringing all their sick and demon-oppressed friends and relatives to Jesus. But no. They literally begged Him to leave their region. Why? We could speculate as to why this community reacted the way it did. All we are told is that they were afraid.

I could easily provide countless other biblical examples of human responses that are not what you would expect.

The point is that human nature is accurately and incisively portrayed in Scripture. And no wonder. Hebrews 4:12,13 tells us that “…the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

God thoroughly understands all the sinful responses of humanity. And because He understands, He has provided a Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.