Spiritual Growth From Surprising Sources

How did I suddenly fall in love with the book of Leviticus?

That’s something I never thought I would feel. But here we are!

This year my husband and I finished reading through the book this week. Spoiler alert: We’re both in amazement at how much it has grown the depth of our love for Christ. While I would love to gush about Leviticus, I frankly don’t know enough to speak about it to the level it deserves. It was helpful to use my Bible Binder and Verse Map Journal to grow my understanding, though it is a learning curve for me! So don’t worry, this won’t be a detail treatise on why every Christian needs to read Leviticus. It’ll be my simple thoughts on how it impacted me personally. I hope that by sharing, it encourages your walk with the Lord.

Like many Christians, I had not taken much time to dive into Leviticus. When I was young, my mom used pictures and stories to describe the tabernacle and meaning of the sacrifices. I also read it in Bible class in 7th grade, but I had no clue what I was reading if I’m honest.

While I read the book last year and saw and felt a small bit of appreciate for Leviticus, this time was different. This time around, God started making connections for me that blew my mind. I saw the gentle and loving care of the Lord for people underneath what, on first glance, appears to be an intense set of confusing rules and rituals.

Here as a few things that stood out to me:

1. God gave the Hebrew people a new identity. They had been enslaved for 400 years, but in Leviticus he continuously calls them his chosen people.

2. The cleanliness codes were a way to care for the community’s health in the desert, which was a new and dangerous environment for the people. Without proper intentionality, sickness and disease could have easily destroyed them.

3. God’s heartbeat was to be able to be near to his people. This is why he called for sacrifices to find a way to cleanse people from their sins so that they could be near him.

He wanted to be near enough to walk with them. Leviticus flabbergasts me because it showcases God's wild love to be close to a broken and sinful people. And perhaps like me, you're very aware of your own sin and it seems like God is unapproachable. But just like the Hebrew people, God still loves us.

What makes this week’s memory verse even more wild is because Christ had not yet come to redeem the world. However, God loved his people so much he set up a pathway to grow close to them. He desired for them to understand Him and walk with him.

The beauty of Christ is that now we can enter into the most Holy God's presence at all times. In fact, His Spirit lives within us! He gives us a fresh identity in Him. He gives a whole life kind of health. Best of all, He wants to do life with us!

If you're joining along with us in this week's memory verse, we hope that Leviticus helps keep our eyes on how deeply compassionate God is that He would desire to walk with us!