I. A Relationship with God Must Be on His Terms (Death is the way to life)

God Desires Us To Be Distinct in Our Worship, Communal Interactions, Personal Lives

A. God Specifies Worship: animal, type, condition, attitude, place, method

1:1 And the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If any man of you shall bring an offering to the LORD...cattle...herd... flock. 3 If his offering shall [be] a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. 4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 And he shall kill the bull before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood around upon the altar that [is by] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

2:13 every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou allow the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt.

3:17 perpetual statute for your generations in all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.

B. Sacrifice (in faithful obedience) Brings Forgiveness and Blessing

4:28 Or if his sin, which he has sinned, shall come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned. 31 And he shall take away all its fat, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn [it] upon the altar for a sweet savour to the LORD; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him. 4:35...the priest shall make atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him. 5:13 And the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin that he has sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and [the remnant] shall be the priest's, as a meat offering. 5:15 If a soul shall commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD...16 And he shall make amends for the harm that he has done in the holy thing, and shall add to it the fifth part, and give it to the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.

5:17 And if a soul shall sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he knew [it] not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. 18...priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance in which he erred and knew [it] not, and it shall be forgiven him. 6:4 Then it shall be, because he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took by force, or the thing which he obtained by deceit, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, 7 And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he has done in trespassing in it.

6:13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.

8:21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar:

C. Obedience Reveals God in Glory

9:23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. 24 And there came out a fire from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: [which] when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

D. Disobedience Reveals God in Judgment

10:1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. 2 And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither tear your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people:

II. Holiness is a Hassle, but the Alternative is Horrible

A. Holiness is Being Separate or Distinct  10:10 make a difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; 11 And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses. 11:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These [are] the beasts which ye may eat among all the beasts that [are] on the earth. 3 Whatever parts the hoof, and is clovenfooted, [and] chews the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. 9 These shall ye eat of all that [are] in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. 22 [Even] these of them ye may eat; the locust after its kind, and the bald locust after its kind, and the beetle after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. 23 But all [other] flying creeping animals which have four feet, [shall be] an abomination to you.

B. Holiness is Our Responsibility 11:44 For I [am] the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I [am] holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping animal that creeps upon the earth. 45 For I [am] the LORD that brings you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I [am] holy.

12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

13:41 hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he [is] forehead bald: [yet is] he clean.

13:45 leper in whom the plague [is], his clothes shall be torn, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

C. Lack of Holiness Requires Punishment

16:5 of congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send [him] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:  Sin requires death 17:11 the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

D. Holiness Extends to Every Area of Our Lives

18:3 doings of Egypt, in which ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man does, he shall live in them: I [am] the LORD.

18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself with it: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down with it: it [is] confusion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 29 For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit [them] shall be cut off from among their people.

19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God [am] holy. 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I [am] the LORD your God. 4 Turn ye not to idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I LORD your God.

19:9 reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I, the LORD your God.

19:11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I [am] the LORD. 13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob [him]: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. 14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I [am] the LORD. 15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: [but] in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. 16 Thou shalt not go up and down [as] a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I the LORD.

19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not allow sin upon him. 18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I [am] the LORD.

19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle mate with another kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mixed seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

19:23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count its fruit as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised to you: it shall not be eaten of. 24 But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy to praise the LORD [with]. 25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase: I [am] the LORD your God.

19:26 Ye shall not eat [any thing] with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.

19:27 Ye shall not shave around the sides of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks upon you: I the LORD. 31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I LORD

19:32 shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, fear thy God: I LORD.

19:33 And if a stranger shall sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not oppress him. 34 [But] the stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.

19:36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I [am] the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

20:4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and kill him not: 5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go astray after him, to commit harlotry with Molech, from among their people.

20:6 And the soul that turns after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go astray after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I [am] the LORD your God. 8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I [am] the LORD who sanctify you.

20:9 For every one that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death

20:10 And the man that commits adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that commits adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 13 If a man also shall lie with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them.

20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have said to you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I [am] the LORD your God, who have separated you from [other] people.

20:25 Ye shall therefore make a difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living animal that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.  26 And ye shall be holy to me: for I the LORD [am] holy, and have separated you from [other] people, that ye should be mine. 27 A man also or a woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them.

22:20 [But] whatever has a blemish, [that] shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. 28 And [whether it is] cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.

III. Miscellaneous Feasts

23:2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, [Concerning] the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim [to be] holy convocations, [even] these [are] my feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day [is] the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work [in it]: it [is] the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

Passover 23:5 In the fourteenth [day] of the first month at evening [is] the LORD'S passover 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month [is] the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

Firstfruits 23:10 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When ye shall have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest: 14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor green heads, until the same day that ye have brought an offering to your God: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Pentecost 23:16 Even to the next day after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering to the LORD.

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reap, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them to the poor, and to the stranger: I [am] the LORD your God.

Trumpets (New Year) 23:24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first [day] of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

Yom Kippur 23:27 Also on the tenth [day] of this seventh month [there shall be] a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation to you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it [is] a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. 32 It [shall be] to you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth [day] of the month at evening, from evening to evening, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

Tabernacles 23:34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month [shall be] the feast of tabernacles [for] seven days to the LORD. 42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.

IV. Miscellaneous Stonings and Other Forms of Justice

24:14 Bring forth him that has cursed outside the camp; and let all that heard [him] lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 17 And he that kills any man shall surely be put to death.  18 And he that kills a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.  20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he has caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him. 21 And he that kills a beast, he shall restore it: and he that kills a man, he shall be put to death. 22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I [am] the LORD your God.

V. Sabbath Day, Year, Jubilee

25:20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? 21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of old fruit until the ninth year; until its fruits come in

VI. Take Your Pick: Blessings or Cursings

A. Smart Choice 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 11 set my tabernacle among you...12...will be your God,

B. Stupid Choice 26:14 But if ye will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul shall abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, [but] that ye break my covenant: 16 I also will do this to you; I will even appoint over you terror 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 44 And yet for all that, when they shall be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I [am] the LORD their God. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I [am] the LORD.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion/Response:

1. In light of Romans 10:4, how does Leviticus apply to NT believers?

2. What principles seem to be emphasized as you read through Leviticus? Why?

3. How should YHWH worshippers be different from non-YHWH worshippers today? How should they be similar?

4. How do you keep your fire from going out?

5. Would an impartial observer conclude that you are separate or distinct from those around you? How?