The Importance of Leviticus

The book of Leviticus is almost entirely devoted to laws for the people of Israel, and many of those are sacrificial laws. Laws about what to sacrifice, how to sacrifice, and when to sacrifice were extremely important for the Israelites, but, as you probably know, we don’t sacrifice animals for our sins anymore. So why is Leviticus in the Bible, and does this book even have any importance for Christians today?

The whole Bible, including Leviticus, is perfect and is written to teach us. Romans 15:4 tells us that,

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled.

Leviticus isn’t just in the Bible by random chance, but is rather an important book that gives us hope for the glorious future that awaits and shows us God’s great works in generations past.

But it’s so boring; how is anyone supposed to learn anything from reading about clean and unclean animals? Yes, it can be an extremely arduous undertaking to sit down and read a chapter of Leviticus, but there is one thing you can do when you do read it:

Look For Jesus

This will take some work, but Jesus is in Leviticus. No, His name is never mentioned, nor are there any cut-and-dry prophecies about Him like there are in Isaiah, but in Leviticus we see the gravity of a sacrifice for the sins of man. We see that God doesn’t take sin lightly. We also are shown that for every sin there must be punishment, and the only punishment acceptable for breaking God’s law is death. Blood must be spilt to pay the penalty for sin. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22b). We don’t need to know how or when to sacrifice animals, but Leviticus tells us why there had to be a sacrifice and that is important. For if we did not know why there had to be punishment for the sins of God’s people in Leviticus, then we wouldn’t know why Jesus Christ had to pay the punishment for the forgiveness of our sins today.

In quick summary, the book of Leviticus gives us a glimpse of the unfathomable weight of our sins, but, more importantly, it makes us recognize the vital importance of Jesus’ sacrifice.