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CHAPTER 3 – Leviticus: 1444 B.C. to Christ’s Second Coming

Leviticus is the third book of the Bible and is a part of the Pentateuch, the name given to the first five books of the Bible. The title in the Hebrew Bible is Wayyiqra taken from the opening word and is translated “and (he) called.” The English title comes to us from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate which has the Latin title Leviticus.

Authorship

Leviticus was written by Moses in the first 30 days of the year 1444 B.C.

Summary

The events in the book of Leviticus belong to the period of 30 days immediately following the setting up of the sanctuary at Mount Sinai on the first day of the first month of the second year, 1444 B.C., since Israel departed from Egypt. This period ended on the first day of the second month of 1444 B.C.

Leviticus begins with a description of a number of offerings which were a part of the sanctuary services. These offerings were, namely, the burnt, meat (grain), peace, sin, and trespass offerings.

Next comes a description of the consecration ceremony of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood and their first offerings to God on behalf of the people of Israel. At the end of this ceremony a fire comes out from God and consumes the burnt offering on the altar as an indication of God’s approval of their offerings.

What follows in Leviticus is an account of the sin of two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who used “strange fire” (Leviticus 10:1) to offer incense before God. This “strange fire” (Leviticus 10:1) was ordinary fire and not sacred fire taken from the altar of burnt offering whose fire God Himself had kindled.

In punishing the sin of Nadab and Abihu, God sent forth a fire which devoured them both and so they died. God then admonished Aaron and his sons not to drink wine and strong drink so that they “may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.” Leviticus 10:10.

In the confusion that followed the death of his sons, Aaron and his remaining two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, omitted to eat their portion of the sin offering. Moses was angry with them because of this, but then Moses accepted Aaron’s explanation for Aaron and his two sons’ omission.

Next, Leviticus gives criteria “to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.” Leviticus 11:47.

After this in the book of Leviticus, are criteria for determining the impurity of persons, garments, and houses, and the steps to be taken for their cleansing.

Then comes a description of the sanctuary service known as “a day of atonement.” Leviticus 23:27. Following this, God specifies the location where the sacrificial offerings to God are to be made.

Next in Leviticus is a description of what God considers sexual sins as well as a number of moral instructions, and ceremonial and sacrificial ordinances. God then prescribes the penalty of death for certain sins.

After this God gives laws concerning the conduct of the priests and those descendants of Aaron who were ineligible to enter the priesthood because they had a physical defect. Further, God specifies the acceptable handling by the priests of the things dedicated by the people to God, which things became holy. In addition, God prescribes the acceptable physical condition of the animals used as sacrificial offerings to God.

God then reiterates His commandment concerning the weekly Sabbath which is the fourth of the ten commandments. Next, God prescribes seven yearly feasts. These annual feasts were Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles.

Then God gives laws concerning violence against persons, murder, and the killing of an animal belonging to another.

After this God specifies that every “seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD” (Leviticus 25:4) when they neither sowed seed in the field nor pruned their vineyards.

In addition, every “fiftieth year” (Leviticus 25:10) the people of Israel were to proclaim a Year of Jubilee. At that time God forbade all sowing and harvesting, all Israelite slaves were to be freed, and all lands sold between two Jubilees were reverted to their original owners.

After this in Leviticus, God prescribed laws which required that compassion be shown to the poor, and laws regarding the ownership and redemption (buying back) of slaves.

God then specifies blessings from Him for obedience to His commandments and curses for disobedience. For those who repent of their sins and turn again to worship God, He promises not to cast them away, but instead to remember His covenant with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Next, God gives laws prescribing what should be done in the case of a person making a vow to God which they could not perform.

Lastly, in Leviticus God addresses whether the tithe or tenth of all increase in wealth of an individual could be redeemed (bought back with money) or not.

Themes

• The holiness of God and that the worship of God is sacred.
• The holiness of the sanctuary.
• God’s requirement that the priests and the people of Israel be holy.
• The body of regulations pertaining to the priesthood and to the sanctuary services.
• The centrality of the sanctuary in the worship of God.
• The gospel taught through the sanctuary services.
• The need for sanctification of the sinner through their repentance and confession of sins to God and their faith in the gospel of Christ.
• The pardon of sin and the transfer of sin from the repentant sinner to the sanctuary through the blood of the sin offering. Thus, the sinner was reconciled to God.
• The special service of the Day of Atonement at the end of the year symbolising, that is, typifying, the removal of sin from those in Israel who had repented of their sins. The ceremony of the Day of Atonement symbolically cleansed the sanctuary from the sins which had accumulated there during the year.
• Satan, symbolised by the scapegoat, as the one upon whom all the sins of the saints which are recorded in the sanctuary will be transferred. Satan will then die for his own sins and the sins of the saints.
• Putting a difference between the clean and unclean, the holy and the unholy.
• God specifying clean and unclean animals as an accommodation of humanity’s lust for the flesh of dead animals.
• God’s requirement that the animal sacrifices be perfect and without blemish.
• The close relationship between sin and eternal death symbolised by the continual use of the blood of sacrifices in the sanctuary.
• The priests, the Levites, that is, Aaron and his sons and their descendants, as mediators between the sinner and God.
• The special role of the high priest once a year in the cleansing of the sanctuary.
• Seven annual feast days ordained by God.
• Health laws.
• An economy that allowed for compassion to the poor, the Year of Jubilee when there was the release of slaves, the resting of the land from farming for a year, and the reverting of property that was sold to its original owner.
• One law for both the foreigner and the Israelite.
• The weekly seventh-day Sabbath to be kept holy.
• Blessings from God for obedience to His commandments and curses for disobedience.
• Laws concerning vows made to God.
• Laws concerning tithes.

God as Revealed in the Book

• God is holy and it is God alone who can make a person holy.
• God specifies how sinners are to approach Him.
• God accepts the worship of repentant sinners.
• God is concerned about how human beings treat each other.
• God has a plan to finally do away with sin in humanity.
• God is concerned about the health of human beings.
• God who teaches the gospel to humanity.
• God as the One who will annihilate Satan.

Connections with the Rest of the Bible

Here are some points on how the book of Leviticus is connected to the rest of the Bible.

Lessons Taught by the Sanctuary

The conditions under which a person becomes justified by God is their “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21. For God says, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15.

Every person may know that “if we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. So, the lesson taught by the sanctuary services, that is, by the Ceremonial Laws, was the pardon of sin, and the imparting by God of spiritual power to obey God’s law to the sinner who meets the necessary conditions.

God says, “Love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10. Thus, “God’s law” (Nehemiah 10:29) is a law of love in keeping with the fact that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), meaning that God has a character of love.

The blood of the sin offering was a symbol, a type, of “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” Hebrew 13:20. For God says, “without shedding of blood is no remission [forgiveness]” (Hebrews 9:22) of sin. So then, without the shedding of the blood of Christ no human being could be saved.

The sin offering was a type of Christ, humanity’s Sin Offering, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away [purges] the sin of the world.” John 1:29. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away [purge] sins.” Hebrews 10:4.

“For the [ceremonial] law [embodied as sanctuary services] having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…[could] never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect [in love].” Hebrews 10:1.

“For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” Hebrews 10:2, 3.

“But this man [Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Hebrews 10:12. “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14. Persons are made perfect “through sanctification of the [Holy] Spirit, unto obedience and [the] sprinkling [the merits] of the blood of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:2.

Sanctification then is the lifelong process whereby the sinner overcomes their sinful nature and becomes holy, obedient to God’s law of love and secure against all temptations to sin.

So, since Christ sanctifies the individual, the sanctuary services, the Ceremonial Law, need not be observed anymore. These Ceremonial Laws were temporary laws to be kept until the death of Christ abolished them.

For the sanctuary was a teaching tool regarding the gospel and the associated Ceremonial Laws, rightly understood, led people to Christ. But when Christ came to live on earth and die for humanity’s sins the symbols of the Ceremonial Laws, the type, met the reality, the antitype, which was Christ.

God says, “Consider the…High Priest…Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 3:1. “We have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” Hebrews 4:14. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25. Moreover, God says, “Sin not. And if any man sin…[you] have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1.

The Sanctuary and the Feast Days

The seven annual feasts instituted by God were types of future events, that is, they were prophetic as shown below.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come [in Jerusalem in 31 A.D.], they [the disciples of Christ] were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” Acts 2:1, 2. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost [Holy Spirit], and began to speak with other tongues [languages], as the [Holy] Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:4.

“Now when this was noised abroad [when this sound was heard], the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.” Acts 2:6. “[The apostle (a disciple specially chosen by Christ)] Peter, standing up with the eleven [other apostles], lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken [listen] to my words.” Acts 2:14.

So, Peter preached to the multitude. “Then they that gladly received his [Peter’s] word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them [to Christ’s disciples] about three thousand souls [persons].” Acts 2:41.

To reiterate, What is baptism? It is a ceremony where the person is submerged under water and brought up again out of the water thereby pledging their allegiance to the Father, Christ the Son of God, and the Holy spirit. This signifies that “we are buried with him [Christ] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4.

So, water baptism is intended to signify that we have experienced a change of heart from selfishness to love, in that, “the love of God is shed abroad [supernaturally poured] in our hearts by the Holy Ghost [Holy Spirit] which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5. This what it means to be “baptize[d]…with the Holy Ghost [Holy Spirit].” Matthew 3:11.

On Pentecost then in 31 A.D., three thousand persons were added to disciples of Christ, a harvest of souls (persons) signifying the future growth of the Christian church. Today, in the year 2022, there are an estimated 2.4 billion Christians in the world. How mightily has the church grown in almost 2,000 years!

In Revelation 14:6-12 in the Bible are to be found the Three Angels’ Messages, the last warning messages to be given to the world from God before the second coming of Christ to the earth. For after Revelation 14:6-12 comes a prophecy of Christ’s second coming.

The Feast of Trumpets prophesied of the time when there would be a great religious awakening in the world. At that time, The First Angel’s Message of Revelation 14:6, 7 would be proclaimed all across the globe.

The First Angel’s Message states: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear [Reverence] God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6, 7.

This First Angel’s Message was to prepare the world for the soon to start Investigative Judgment, at the end of which Christ comes to the earth a second time. Now “advent” means “coming” and so the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, looked forward to the second coming of Christ. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.

The Sanctuary and the Record of Sin

God said to Moses, “And let them [Israel] make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew [show] thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exodus 25:8 9. Thus, the Israelites constructed a portable sanctuary in the year 1445 B.C. while they were in the wilderness.

Later in their history, in 955 B.C., they constructed a permanent building known as Solomon’s Temple according the pattern given by God. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. when Israel went into Babylonian captivity because of their sins. A Second Temple was constructed in 515 B.C. after the Jews returned to their homeland. Starting in 37 B.C., about 500 years later, the Second Temple was renovated and rebuilt by king Herod and so came to be known as Herod’s Temple. This Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

In the sanctuary in all its forms on earth from 1445 B.C. to 70 A.D., the sanctuary services remained the same. Thus, there was a daily transfer of sins from the sinner, through the sprinkling of the shed blood of an innocent animal, to the sanctuary. This, in reality, was the transfer of sins from the repentant sinner to Christ, humanity’s Sin Bearer, and was the means by which the sinner received the atonement (reconciliation to God).

Now, the “worldly [earthly] sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1) was “the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8:5. In other words, the earthly sanctuary was a copy of “the true tabernacle [sanctuary], which the Lord [God] pitched, and not man.” Hebrews 8:2. This sanctuary then which God made is known as “the heavenly sanctuary.”

And just as the sins of the repentant sinner were transferred to Christ and forgiven, so there was a record kept in the heavenly sanctuary of all these sins that had been repented of and been forgiven by God. In effect then the heavenly sanctuary was polluted by sins.

The Four Decrees

“And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it [the Second Temple], according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment [decree] of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.” Ezra 6:14.

That is, Cyrus originated the decree in 537 B.C., Darius reaffirmed it in 520 B.C., and Artaxerxes completed the decree in 457 B.C., bringing it to the perfection required by the prophecy of Daniel Chapter 9: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment [decree] to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [Jesus Christ] shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” Daniel 9:25.

“Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe…Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest…I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel…in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.” Ezra 7:11-13. Thus, a company of Jews left Persia to go Jerusalem with the permission of king Artaxerxes.

So, taking 457 B.C., the time when the decree was completed, that is, as the date of the commandment “to restore and to build Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:25), it will be shown in Chapter 27 of this book that every specification of the prophecy concerning the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 have been fulfilled. Now after the three decrees by the three kings, another decree, a fourth decree, was later given by Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. concerning the completion of the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. However, neither this date of 444 B.C., nor the dates 537 B.C. or 520 B.C., meet all the specifications of the 70-week prophecy.

The Cleansing of the Sanctuary

Now God prophesied saying, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the [heavenly] sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14) of sin. This prophecy began in 457 B.C., at the same time that the 70-week prophecy began, the time when king Artaxerxes of Persia completed the decree concerning the return of the Jews in his kingdom to Jerusalem.

God had said to Israel, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.” Numbers 14:34. Thus, God gave the day-for-a-year principle to be applied in interpreting some of His prophecies.

According to this principle, the prophetic “two thousand and three hundred days” (Daniel 8:14) are literal 2,300 years. Therefore, 2,300 years from 457 B.C. is 1844 A.D. so, 1844 A.D. was the beginning of the Pre-Advent (Investigative) Judgment. For Christ, on His ascension to heaven from the earth in 31 A.D. “by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place” (Hebrews 9:12) of the heavenly sanctuary.

In 1844 A.D. at the end of the 2,300-year prophecy, the antitypical (the reality of the) Day of Atonement began when the heavenly sanctuary was to be cleansed of sin. At that time, Christ as humanity’s High Priest entered into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary to begin the judgment of all persons who had ever lived.

This judgment will end with Christ’s second coming to the earth. Christ says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12.

This then answers the question, “How should man be just with God?” Job 9:2. God says, “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” 1 Timothy 5:24. Those whose sins go before them, having been transferred to Christ, humanity’s Sin Bearer, which sins are then recorded in the heavenly sanctuary, will be found righteous by God. These only, the sanctified, will be saved and have eternal life from God.

In the sanctuary then, before veil of the “most holy place” (Exodus 26:34), was an altar of perpetual intercession and, before the “holy place” (Exodus 26:33), an altar of continual atonement. By blood and incense, God was to be approached. These were symbols, types, pointing to Christ the great “mediator” (1 Timothy 2:5) through whom alone sinners may approach God, and through whom alone the repentant, believing person may receive mercy and salvation.

When Christ returns to the earth at His second coming, God will separate the sanctified persons from those who are wicked. Then the righteous dead will be raised to life and taken to heaven with the righteous living. On the other hand, at that time, all the living wicked on earth will die and join the wicked dead in the grave.

The righteous who are taken to heaven are those persons of whom God says, “He [or she] that overcometh [sin]…I will not blot out his [or her] name out of the book of life.” Revelation 3:5. These are those persons who were found to be holy in the Pre-Advent (Investigative) Judgment of all human beings who had ever lived.

The Feast of Tabernacles then was a symbol, a type, of the time when the all the righteous who had ever lived, the saints, are in heaven with God. What a joy that will be for the saints!

Tithes

Now God says, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me.” Malachi 3:8, 9.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat [food] in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10.

Tithes provide sustenance to those who “give…[themselves] continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4) of God. In addition to tithes, God requires “freewill offerings” (Leviticus 22:18), and those offerings must be given with a willing heart. These offerings are meant to pay the expenses of the church such as utility bills.

Spiritual Applications

Pray to God sincerely and ask God to help you to do His will, believing that God will help you, and thus you will be enabled to make the spiritual applications noted below:

• Have reverence for God.
• Consecrate yourself to God every morning and evening.
• Repent and confess your sins to God and believe the gospel.
• Acknowledge God as your Provider of your spiritual and physical needs and thank God for His many blessings.
• Enter into a deep, lifelong, loving, special relationship with God.
• Seek to be holy by repenting of and confessing your sins to God, asking His forgiveness of your sins and His cleansing you from your sins by faith in Christ.
• Make restitution, where possible, for the wrong done to others.
• Love others as you love yourself.
• Do not drink alcohol in any form.
• Eat no meat, that is, do not eat the flesh of dead animals.
• Obey all of God’s commandments which are to be found in the Bible.
• Abstain from that which is unholy by discerning the difference between the holy and unholy.
• Keep yourself and your surroundings clean.
• Quarantine the diseased as necessary, and separate the leper from all others.
• Do not eat animals that die of themselves or are killed by other animals.
• Do not commit any sexual sin as defined by God, for example, incest and homosexuality.
• Do not have any tattoos on your body.
• Do not mistreat a foreigner, but instead love them as yourself.
• Do not perform human sacrifice.
• Do not have anything to do with Satan and his evil angels, who are known as demons.
• Share what you have with the poor and the needy.
• Do not do violence to anyone.
• Allow your land to rest from farming one year in every seven years.
• Pay all your vows to God.
• Return a tithe or tenth of all your increase in wealth to God.

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