Leviticus

"Whew, I made it through that book." That is what I found myself saying this morning after I finished reading the last few chapters of Leviticus. It went by fast. I only started to read through the book on February 1st and now on the 9th we have finished the last chapters. It is a hard book to read through but I found an easy book to understand. Let me explain what I mean in that it is easy and hard at the same time.

First, Leviticus is a hard book to read through. This is the first big section of Scripture to read in that is not narrative or story. After reading through Genesis and then a good portion of Exodus, Leviticus is much different in style and type of reading. To add to the change in genre of reading, the Law style and commands are much more difficult to get through. The chapters on what a person could not touch, or eat, or do. The big sections that dealt with the Priest and their holiness were tough to read through. And even today as the year of Jubilee was read through, it seems very repetitive and meticulous to get into. This makes the book of Leviticus hard to make it through. I felt many times I was reading the same thing over and over and over again. I felt like saying, ok God I get it, "be holy because I am holy", I understand. I sometimes felt like it could be said in far less time and words.

But this brings us to the point in that Leviticus is easy to read. We know the big theme and point to the book, "I the Lord your God am Holy, so be Holy." I get that and I understand that. Compared to a book like Laminations and Isaiah, Leviticus is easy to understand. Just like the Hebrews were to be holy, we also in the church today are to be holy and being holy means following God's law and commands to the perfection. When we understand that we are to be holy, we then know why the few stories are added to Leviticus, like Nadab and Abihu and in the reading today the boy who blasphemes God. These stories are there to show us what being Holy is not. So Leviticus is much easier than most book of the Bible to understand which makes it much easier than most books to read.

So as I found myself struggling some days to read through Leviticus it was encouraging to know that the message was clear and easy for me to pick up on. I pray as I begin Numbers tomorrow that, even as some days will be a struggle to read through (like the ordering of the tribes) that most days the message and teaching from God will be easy to understand and pick up.