Should I study Leviticus?

[seekeroftruth]

Leviticus 10:1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said:

“‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’”

Aaron remained silent.​

The last few chapters of Exodus are all about building what God laid out in His plans before the fiasco of the golden calf incident. Moses went back up the mountain for another set of tablets and after spending yet another 40 days and 40 nights talking with God, Moses returned and put the plan into action.

Now, with everything built by the best artists, the Israelites began to worship and that brings me to Leviticus. Then the first 9 chapters are all about the details of the different types of offerings, what was required and why they were important. It isn't until Leviticus 10 that we see any real human action.... and since we're reading the story.... not trying to get bogged down in which direction to fling the blood.... I'm all for just reading through some parts.

On the other hand, if Aaron's sons had followed the directions, they wouldn't have wound up dead. Right? Please forgive me.

Here's what the Easy English commentary says about Leviticus [the book].

Moses, or one of his helpers, wrote Leviticus in the Hebrew language. All the people called Jews spoke the Hebrew language. They belonged to the family that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob started. The Jews called the Book of Leviticus ‘wayyiqra’. This is actually two Hebrew words, ‘way’ and ‘yiqra’. They mean ‘and’ and ‘he called’. These words are the first words in the book in the Hebrew language. When the Jews translated their Bible into the Greek language, they gave the book a new title. The new Greek title meant ‘about the Levites’. Our title ‘Leviticus’ is the Latin word for ‘about the Levites’. The people who lived in Greece spoke Greek. The people who lived in Rome spoke Latin. When Jesus came to the earth, many people spoke Latin and Greek.

Jacob had 12 children. One of them was called Levi. His descendants became the tribe of Levi. Descendants are members of your family that live after you. A tribe is a very large family. Members of this family were called Levites. They had a special job to do. Some of them worked in the house of God. They were called priests. Other priests worked in every town in the country. They helped people to understand the Bible. The Book of Leviticus, (‘wayyiqra’), helped the priests to do their work. Remember that all the priests were Levites.​

The first 5 books of the Bible tell us about several periods in the life of each person. If that person is a Christian, then the books mean this:

• Genesis … Sin makes a person into a slave of the devil. Sin is when we do not obey God. Everybody is in this group of people. ‘Everybody has sinned’, Romans 3:23. We sin when we do not obey God’s laws. Genesis also tells us about people who tried to obey God, including Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
• Exodus … God makes people free. So they are not slaves. They are like the Jews who came out of Egypt. Christians are free. In other words, sin does not still control them like slaves. God makes them free when they first believe in Jesus. They believe that Jesus died to save them from the devil. Now they are not the devil’s people. Instead they are God’s people. We call this ‘conversion’.
• Leviticus … God wants his people to be friends with him. This is a special type of friendship that we call ‘fellowship’. God brought the Jews out of Egypt so that they could have fellowship with him. And God frees Christians from sin so that they can have fellowship with him. This is what God wants very much. Leviticus tells us that we can have fellowship with God. We can have fellowship with God because Jesus died for us! That is why Leviticus is important for Christians.
• Numbers … God’s people look for the Promised Land. For the Jews, it was the country called Israel. For Christians it is Heaven and the New Earth. Heaven is the home of God. We call this the Christian’s ‘walk’ with God. God shows his people the way to go. We often call this ‘guidance’, because God is guiding his people.
• Deuteronomy … God’s people have reached the Promised Land. They are ‘home’! Here are the rules that they must obey while still on this earth. There are no such rules in Heaven.

As a Christian I know that Jesus called God "Father". It makes sense to me that God wanted to be the "Father" of His chosen people. To put it in the current vernacular, it's like "He adopted them". It's a father's to teach their children to obey. This is God teaching the Israelites how to behave. It's bound to be a little complicated because, after all, God is God and the Israelites were actually the offspring of something God had created decades before. They are marred, ignorant, and horrid creatures.

I find it interesting that Levi's family was chosen for the priesthood. Levi and his brother Simeon were cunning men, intent on revenge. They murdered every man in town.... Genesis 34. So this book is about the family of one of the murderers and their calling, along with the details of that position they are called to fill.

I don't think we need to go through every detail about how they were to perform their duties. So I skipped the last few chapters of Genesis and went right through the first 9 chapters of Leviticus. I hope that's ok with those following along. If I need to know about the particulars, I know where to find them.... right?