Leviticus: A Book of Shadows

By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz

To most Christians, the book of Leviticus is strange and difficult to understand. Indeed, trying to comprehend every detail of this great book is an endless endeavor. But you don’t need to be a biblical scholar to find the value of Leviticus. One of the key points to remember is that like all Old Testament books, Leviticus confesses and foreshadows Jesus (Luke 24:44). Read it with Christ in mind, and you’ll be surprised at what you can learn. Leviticus isn’t a dusty, bygone piece of ancient literature reserved for the past, but is the living, active Word of God still testifying to God’s redemption in Christ crucified and the holy gifts He gives to sinners.

To see how it testifies to Christ crucified, let’s look at the sacrifices. They come with detailed instructions, but don’t let those details scare you away. Rather, start with some basic questions. First, who instituted these sacrifices? Easy answer: the LORD. Second, in many of these sacrifices the death of an animal was required. Who provided the animal? Answer: the LORD. He provides everything. Third, who declares the people right in His sight? Another easy answer—the LORD. He sets up the sacrifices up by His Word so that faithful Israelites could offer their gifts according to His Word and leave justified. God institutes, provides, and declares. In other words, God is the active agent doing the work in Leviticus.

God would again do the work in providing the sacrifice for sin in His only-begotten Son, Jesus. Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb who has taken away all your sin by His holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death. His atonement, His death, His cross, and blood have accomplished what is “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats…” (Hebrews 10:4). His blood has once and for all atoned for the sins of the world—a gift of God for sinners who receive God’s forgiveness and depart in His peace, justified according to His Word. The sacrifices in Leviticus foreshadow this. God provided the animals then and would provide the sacrifice later in the person of Jesus at the cross, whose death has purchased you from condemnation, making you His for eternity.

Another example of Leviticus’ foreshadowing Christ is God’s demand for holy people. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). This looks like just another command, something like “Be holy in all that you do because I’m holy, and you have to copy Me to be holy.” Levitical Israelites were commanded to keep His Word and live holy lives, but this blessed Word in Leviticus 19:2 isn’t just mere Law. It’s also God declaring who His people are because of Him. It’s a promise that they will be holy because He makes people holy. They will be sanctified, not because of their works but because of a holy God who is always the generous giver of holiness. Holiness is never earned.

The most holy, precious thing in the Levitical Israelite’s possession is something the Christian possesses today— the holy, saving Name of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s the Name of holiness protected from misuse and desecration in the sacred Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7). It’s a Name the Church possesses and lives in by faith, which in turn affects how we live, as only faith produces those works pleasing to God. But another interesting aspect of God’s holiness in Leviticus is that it’s tangible. In other words, Leviticus is big on holy objects. There are numerous examples, but let’s look at two: holy food and holy garments.

For the typical Israelite, holy food was meat from the peace offering (Leviticus 19:5-8). This was holy food with a warning. Consumption on the third day meant one had “profaned what is holy to the LORD and that person shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 19:8). The priests, likewise, had holy food. Meat from the sin offering could be consumed by the priests but only on holy ground, the “court of the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 6:26). So holy was this food that it communicated God’s holiness through physical contact: “Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy…” (Leviticus 6:27).

In many ways this foreshadows the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament where holy food is again given to the Church, only this time God gives Himself—His true Body and true Blood for the forgiveness of sins. And like the peace offering in Leviticus, the Lord’s Supper can be handled wrongly, as we read in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30. Therefore, before one dismisses the notion of the Lord’s Supper containing the holiness of God in Christ Himself, bear in mind that holy food exists in Leviticus where God had no problem imparting His holiness in food and giving it to His people!

Finally, there were garments. Garments for the Levitical priest were life-savers. They were “consecrated” (Leviticus 8:30) and had to be worn during service, lest God’s servant “bear guilt and die” (Exodus 28:43). The New Testament also talks about garments, as well as every Christian being a priest before God. In 1 Peter 2:9, we hear that the baptized believer is part of the “royal priesthood.” In Galatians, we hear “for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Notice the clothing language here: being baptized means you have “put on” Jesus. In the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14), Jesus teaches that one must have the right garment to stay at the feast. It’s another way of saying we need Him. We need Christ alone who is the perfect garment covering our shameful sins, making us worthy to dwell with Him in life everlasting. Like the Levitical priest, we, too, need His garments lest in our guilt we die. We have such garments in Christ—garments we wear by faith.

This article has barely scratched the surface on how Leviticus foreshadows Christ crucified and the holy gifts He bestows to His people. Don’t be intimidated! Jump in and start reading. Read Leviticus with Christ in mind, and by the grace of God you’ll be surprised at what you learn. It’s still the living Word of God directing us to the Holy One Himself: our Lord and our God who continues to justify, sanctify and give faith to believe His Word even as it comes to us in Leviticus.

Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz is the pastor and headmaster at Victory in Christ Lutheran Church and Academy in Newark, Texas.