Leviticus 17 – 19
The Place of Sacrifice
Laws Against Eating Blood
Unlawful Sexual Relations
The Lord is Holy
Love Your Neighbor
Keep God’s Statutes
The Place of Sacrifice
• Outside the Tabernacle, God constituted the
ritual sacrifice of animals and disposal of their
blood a capital crime.
• Only those sacrifices commanded by God and
offered at the entrance to the tent of meeting
were permitted.
• God proclaims His dwelling place as the
exclusive place for sacrifices.
The Place of Sacrifice
• God does not want His people running after
false Gods.
• Today we strive to avoid every association
with false idols and acts of idolatry.
• For it is Jesus alone that atones for our sins of
idolatry with His precious blood and can only
be received by his means (Word and
Sacrament).
Laws Against Eating Blood
If anyone of the house of Israel or of the
aliens among your eats any blood, I will set
my face against that person who eats
blood and will cut him off from among his
people. For the life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have give it for you on the
altar to make atonement for your souls, for
it is the blood that makes atonement by
the life.
What’s The
WORST THING
that could happen
to an Israelite?
Laws Against Eating Blood
• The Israelites and those who came among
them as STRANGERS were permitted to hunt
birds and animals to supplement their diets.
• The BLOOD from these birds and animals were
DRAINED on the ground and covered with
earth.
• God forbids the wanton KILLING of birds and
animals.
• God desires that all life be RESPECTED
LIVE DIFFERENTLY
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying
“Speak to the people of Israel and say to
them, I am the LORD your God. You shall
not do as they do in the land of Egypt,
where you lived, and you shall not do as
they do in the land of Canaan, to which I
am bringing you. You shall not walk in their
statues. You shall follow my rules and keep
my statues and walk in them. I am the
LORD your God. Leviticus 18:1 – 4
God’s View of Sex
• God is going to detail the sexual practices
He REJECTS, in order that the Israelites
might live before Him in purity, unlike the
Egyptians and Canaanites.
• Because of their sexual practices, Canaan,
the land promised to the Israelites, is
defiled, and their people will soon be
“vomited out” of the land as God leads the
Israelites in. (see v. 25)
The KEY Sexual Behaviors to
AVOID
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Incest (v. 6 – 16)
Adultery (v. 17 – 18; 20)
Sacrificial Idolatry (v. 21)
Homosexuality (v. 22)
Bestiality (v. 23)
God’s View of Sex
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of
these things…for everyone who does any of
these abominations, the persons who do
them shall be cut off from among their
people. So keep my charge never to practice
any of these abominable customs that were
practiced before you, and never to make
yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD
your God. Leviticus 18:24, 29 – 30
The LORD is Holy
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying “Speak
to all the congregation of the people of Israel
and say to them, “You shall be HOLY, for I the
LORD your God am Holy. Everyone one of you
shall revere his mother and his father, and you
shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your
God. Do not turn to idols or make for
yourselves god of cast metal: I am the LORD
your God. Leviticus 19:1 - 4
God’s Common Sense Approach to
Life – LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
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Don’t STEAL (19:11)
Don’t DEAL FALSELY with others (19:11)
Don’t LIE to one another (19:11)
Don’t swear by MY NAME FALSLEY (19:12)
Don’t OPPRESS your NEIGHBOR (19:13)
Don’t HARM the HANDICAP (19:14)
Don’t commit INJUSTICE in the courts (19:15)
Don’t SLANDER other people (19:16)
KEEP GOD’S STATUTES
• Various statutes or rules to live by when
the PEOPLE of GOD entered the promise
land
• These were nothing NEW
• They simply were reminders of God had
called them to live as his chosen people,
holy and set-apart by God.
Leviticus 20 - 24
Various Punishments (ch. 20)
Call to Be Holy (ch. 20)
Code of Conduct for Priests
(ch. 21 – 22)
Liturgical Calendar (ch. 23)
Various Ordinances (ch. 24)
Various Punishments
• Chapter 20 outlines the penalties for the
ritual defilements presented in chs. 18 – 19
• Child Sacrifice resulted in death by stoning
• Consulting mediums and necromancers
resulted in being cut off from Yahweh
(20.6)
• If I curse my father or mother that was
punishable by death
Punishment for Sexual Immorality
• Adultery was punishable by death (20.10)
• Incest was punished by death (20.12)
• Homosexuality was punished by death
(20.13)
• Multiple sexual partners resulted in
death (20.14)
• Bestiality resulted in death of both
human and animal (20.16-17)
How Do You Respond?
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What is the Context?
Why Is This Law Here?
What Changes Has God Made?
What is Our Call Now?
What Principles Do We Live by Now?
How can we stay consistent?
Punishment for Sexual Immorality
• Sexual immorality defiles individuals,
making them unclean.
• Because these individuals are God’s holy
people, their sexual conduct desecrates
God’s name as well.
• As Christians we have the same call to
sexual purity and to refrain from any
sexual activity that would defile us.
Colossians 3:5 – 7
Put to death therefore what is earthly
in you: sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire….On account of
these the wrath of God is coming. In
these you too once walked, when you
were living in them.
KEY VERSE 20:23 – 24
And you shall not walk/live in the customs of
the nation that I am driving out before you,
for they did all these things, and therefore I
detested them. But I have said to you, “You
shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you
to possess, a land flowing with milk and
hone.’ I am the LORD your God, who has
separated you from the peoples.
Code of Conduct for Priests
• Code of Conduct for priests (21:1 – 9)
• Code of Conduct for High Priests (21:10 -15)
• Physical Qualities that disqualified a priest from
entering God’s sanctuary or holy place (21:16 –
24)
• Other qualities that disqualify a priest from eating
sacred food. (22:1 – 9)
• Provides a list of residents within a priests’ house
disqualified from eating sacred food (22:10 – 16)
The Israelite Liturgical Calendar
• Chapter 23 represents a liturgical calendar
for the Israelites.
• Each festival and Sabbath prepares the way
and finds its fulfillment in Jesus
• As such the life of Jesus shapes the
Christian liturgical calendar, granting rest
not only for our weary bodies but also for
our weary souls.
3 Ordinances Regarding HOLY
THINGS (chapter 24)
• The Lamps found within the Tabernacle
• The Bread for the Tabernacle
• The Name of God
– God equates Blasphemy with the sin of
idolatry because it undermined true
worship
– Blasphemers were cursed by God
– The Lord commands his name to be
hallowed
The Law of Retribution
• Take a human life and be put to death (24.17)
• Injury to a neighbor requires just
compensation (24.18 – 20)
• Kill a neighbor’s animal then restore it (24.21)
• The rules are the same for both Israelites and
foreigners (24.22)
• God’s system of justice is based on equity and
compensation for loss
Leviticus 25 – 27
The Sabbath Year (ch. 25)
The Year of Jubilee (ch. 25)
Examples of Redemption (ch. 25)
Blessings and Curses (ch. 26)
Vow taking Laws (ch. 27)
The Sabbath Year
• Chapters 25 – 26 comprises a
single speech God prepared for
Moses to deliver to the
Israelites.
• The speech connects life in the
land with the observance of the
Sabbath Year.
The Sabbath Year
• The land will rest every SEVENTH year
• The land was left uncultivated during
the seventh year, which helped restore
its productive qualities. Whatever was
produced during the year was gleaned
for people and animal usage, but not
sold commercially.
Year of Jubilee
• Occurred Every 50 years on the day of
Atonement
• The year of Jubilee provides God’s people with
restored freedoms
• Lands were returned to their original owners
• Slave were freed
• The land was given rest
• Loans were written off
Year of Jubilee
• The Year of Jubilee demonstrated the Lord’s
emphasis on freedom, family, property rights,
and devotion.
• These things make a nation strong.
• In Christ, we find our jubilee
• In Him, our sins are forgiven, and we receive
our “eternal inheritance”.
Redemption of the Land
• God provided means by which the land
stayed within the family
• TWO cases of redemption
• If a man SOLD property out of necessity,
his paternal next of kin was obligated to
buy it back.
• If the poor man prospers he could
purchase the land back for a fair value or
wait till the year of Jubilee.
Redemption of the Land
• If a man built is home in a walled city
– the home would be redeemable
within the first year; otherwise, all
family rights were forfeited.
• There were two exceptions: houses
in rural villages (v. 31) and houses in
towns belonging to the levities (v. 32
– 34)
Kindness for Poor Brothers
• Family members were to take care of one
another if they were stricken with
poverty
• You shall support him – Give Him a Job
• Take no interest from him or profit
• You should not lend him your money at
interest
• Nor give him your food for profit.
But if you will not listen to me and will not
do all these commandments, if you spurn
my statutes, and if your soul abhors my
rules, so that you will not do all my
commandments, but break my convent,
then I will do this to you: I will visit you
with panic, with wasting disease and fever
that consume the eyes and make the
heart ache…I will set my face against you,
and you will be struck down before your
enemies. (26:14 – 17)
But if they confess their iniquity and the
iniquity of their fathers in their treachery
that they committed against me, and also
walking contrary to me, so that I walked
contrary to them and brought them into
the land of their enemies—if then their
uncircumcised heart is humbled and they
make amends for their iniquity, then I will
remember my covenant with them .
(26:40 - 42)
Laws about Vows
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Various laws regarding vows people make
People
Animals
Homes
Land
Firstborn
Tithe