Pentateuch Week 6 Notes: Leviticus & Numbers: Sacrifices, Instructions
and Preparation to enter the Land
Context of time at Sinai after the exodus (Exo 19:1 to Num 10:11) is less than a year!
An outline for Leviticus and Numbers
 Leviticus 1 – 7: Instructions about offering sacrifices
 Leviticus 8 – 9: The ordination of the priests
 Leviticus 10: The priests’ disobedience and chastising
 Leviticus 11 – 15: Priests’ instructions about purity and defilement
 Leviticus 16: YHWH’s provision for shortcomings (Day of Atonement)
 Leviticus 17 – 26: Instructions about holiness
 Leviticus 27: Instructions about vows
 Numbers 1 – 25: Hopeful preparations and rebellious wilderness journey
 Numbers 26 – 36: The journey to the edge of the land (“forty years”)
1. God calls us to be a living sacrifice of worship in His presence
Hebrew->Greek->Latin->English = Leviticus! But the first Hebrew word of the book
= “and he called”. This immediately follows what experience in Exodus?
Why all the rules about sacrifices? Because worship easily goes wrong and
assimilates to the culture? (e.g., rules about reading scripture during worship)
a. The whole offering. Leviticus 1; 6:1-6 (‘olah, kalil)
All the animal goes up in smoke; God has all of it.
You are giving something wholly up to God.
b. The grain offering. Leviticus 2; 6:7-16 (minhah)
Not an offering on its own but accompanying other offerings (bread to go with
the meat-an entire meal)
Shared by the offerer and God—a meal of fellowship together.
c. The sacrifice of well-being/fellowship (NIV) Lev 3; 7:11-34 (zebah shelamim)
Three different reasons for this offering:
a) Thanksgiving (i.e., to express gratitude to God for something)
b) Responsive offering (i.e., to fulfill a vow which you made in praying for
something that God has now granted)
c) Freewill offering (i.e., you just want to express your love for God)
Also shared by the offerer and God—a meal of fellowship together.
d. Purification/sin offering. Lev 4:1-5:13; 6:17-23 (hatta’t)
To gain purification with regard to some stain. This might come from a moral
stain (e.g., through failing to testify in a legal case) or a ceremonial stain (e.g.,
through being in contact with a corpse).
e. Guilt/reparation offering. Lev 5:14-26; 7:1-10; also Numbers 5:5-8 (’asham): To
offer compensation for a wrongful act. In NT language, we might call this a
repentance offering (i.e. requires us to think and act differently).
See e.g. Theological Dictionary of the OT; Theological Lexicon of the OT; also J. E.
Hartley, Leviticus (Word Commentary).
2. God’s dynamic presence requires listening for old & new treasure
 Lev 7:15 “The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten
on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.”
 Origen, from Homilies on Leviticus: “the divine Word does not allow us to feed
on yesterday’s meat, but always on what is fresh and new…This flesh, which
is allotted to the priests for the sacrifices, is the word of God which they teach
in the Church. Thus they are warned in this passage, by forms which have
mystic meaning, not to set forth stale doctrines according to the letter, but by
God’s grace ever to bring forth new truth, ever to discover the spiritual
lessons. If you produce today in the church what you learned yesterday from
the Jews, this is just eating yesterday’s flesh in the sacrifice.” (Lev. Hom 5:8)
3. The NT is also teachings that confirm OT teachings/instructions
 Lev 19:17 “You must not hate your brother in your heart”
 Lev 19:18 “you must love your neighbor as yourself”
 Lev 19:34 “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native
citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were
foreigners in the land of Egypt”
 What does this tell us about interpreting our Scriptures?
 Beware of “progressive revelation”
 Beware of spiritualizing the commands
*Our Scriptures command us to care for the foreigner as our own family, and to care
for our own family as if they were foreigners!

Leviticus 25:35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself
with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner,
and he shall live with you.”
By Numbers chapters 13 and 14, The Israelites should be ready to jump into Joshua
chapter 1 and enter the Promised Land! Even though weren’t ready, God still, in
essence, said to them, “I am still whosoever I shall be! I am faithful!”
Interpreting Leviticus
Why not allowed?
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
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Eating shellfish? Lev 10:10
Contact with women in their period of menstruation? Lev. 15:19-24
Homosexuality? Lev 18:22
Why allowed?
 Slavery of your daughter? Exodus 21:7
 Buying slaves from the nations around us? Leviticus 25:44
 Killing people working on the Sabbath? Exodus 35:2
How would we argue that the prohibition on homosexual acts applies now, but the
others don’t? How would we argue that none of the next three allowances still apply
today?
Note that Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are the only OT references to homosexuality.
They fit with other OT prohibitions on combining things that do not belong or fit
together – see Leviticus 19:11; Deuteronomy 22:9-11.
Note also that the OT sees the wickedness of Sodom as lying in the area of violence –
Gen. 19 speaks of the cry of the oppressed; and see e.g., Ezekiel 16:49-50. The
problem in Genesis 19 is rape, as in Judges 19.
We need a broader biblical theological view of sexuality, rooted in the creation
order, if we are to argue that the ban on homosexual acts applies now when those
other bans do not. We believe sex is designed for expression within a monogamous
lifelong heterosexual relationship in order to fill the world (Genesis 1) and to image
God in the world (Ephesians 5), and this does suggest that homosexual practice falls
short of God’s creational vision, along with polygamy, prostitution, divorce,
remarriage, living together before/without marriage, premarital sex, etc.
While we believe this, how then should we address all of these issues? Scripture
warns us not to focus too much on one issue to the exclusion of others…or does it?
"There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and … there
are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to
imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a
great deal more supervision." Lynne Lavner
Numbers, “In the Wilderness”
(partly based on John Goldingay’s lectures, D. T. Olson’s, “Negotiating boundaries,”
Interpretation 51 (1997), pp. 229-40 and Olson’s interpretive commentary)
Numbers 1 – 10 (beginning with the census): Preparations for the journey
 Instructions and apparent obedience (with underlying warnings of future)
Numbers 11 – 25: How not to get to the promised land
 Psalm 95:7-11: Israel is not yet there?
 Numbers describes the problems (Cf. 1 Corinthians 10)
 Rebellions and punishments, but notes of hope
 Note the humor (the longing for garlic; Balaam)
 Preoccupation with death
 Three kinds of problems:
1. Wishing they had never been delivered from Egypt
2. Not believing (having faith) that they can reach their destiny
3. Complaining at/that the leadership is responsible for both
With the transition from chapters 22 – 24 to chapter 25 compare that from Exodus
25 – 31 to 32 (there has been no progress!).
Numbers 26 – 36 (beginning with the census): Preparations for life in the land
 Parallels 1-25, but new life and hope characterize the new people
 With the necessary compromise
 With voices from the margin (Balaam, Daughters of Zelophehad)
Be Holy as Yahweh is Holy (Leviticus 19:2)
(from John Goldingay)
What Would the Imitation of Yahweh Look Like?
Genesis 1 – 2
be creative
be life-giving
bring order
Genesis 3 – 11
be easily hurt
be realistic
but don’t give up
Genesis 12 – 50
give people hope
give people land
give people space and scope
Exodus 1 – 18
hear people’s pain
be open and self-revealing
fight against oppression
give people freedom
Exodus 19 – 40
be categorical
be concrete and practical
be there
be flexible
be more merciful than judgmental
Leviticus 1 – 18
be available
be frightening