The Bible in a Year

Old Testament

Leviticus 7 to 20
Read this coming week:
Feb 21 Lev 7, Ps 48, Luke 12 Feb 22 Lev 8‐9, Ps 49, Luke 13 Feb 23 Lev
10‐11, Ps 50, Luke 14 Feb 24 Lev 12‐13, Ps 51, Luke 15 Feb 25 Lev 14, Ps
52, Luke 16 Feb 26 Lev 15‐16, Ps 53, Luke 17 Feb 27 Lev 17‐18, Ps 54,
Luke 18 Feb 28 Lev 19‐20, Ps 55, Luke 19

Reading Questions
For next week you’re reading Leviticus 7 to 20. Answer
the following:
• What is a freewill offering?
• What is placed inside the breastplate of a priest?
(Extra Credit – read I Samuel 28 to see what these
are used for)
• Why do Nadab and Abihu die? What is the
qualification for a “clean” animal?
• Jesus’ parents offered turtledoves at Mary’s
purification. What did this say about their socio-
economic status? (12)
• What makes a house “unclean”?
 • What is the Day of Atonement?
• According to Leviticus 17, the “life of every
creature is in its …?”
• Why should Israel (and why should we) be holy?
Leviticus and Story
The book of Leviticus obviously has a great degree of
legislative talk in it. However, we should not allow the
amount of law giving in Leviticus distract us from the
fact that it is told in a narrative format just as are all the
other first 5 books of the Bible (the Pentateuch).

Leviticus opens at the Tent of Meeting within the

Tabernacle grounds as God was speaking to Moses
concerning sacrifices. God continues to speak His laws
to Moses until we are broken out of the lawgiving and
back into the narrative framework of Leviticus. During
this narrative, Aaron and his sons are consecrated, God
accepts an offering, and a few Israelites sin – then it is
back to lawgiving until chapter 16.

It is interesting what happens when Moses (the author

of Leviticus) breaks from the lawgiving to insert the
narrative of the historical framework. Just as in Exodus,
he seems to break from law giving to show negative
examples of how the law is not being followed but also
positive examples of how it is being followed.

When the narrative breaks into the lawgiving once again

in chapter 16, we find the story of how Aaron is once
again let into the temple through the Day of Atonement
sacrifices. While Leviticus is known as the book of
lawgiving, it is also a book in which God shows His
Gospel – His love for His chosen people and the
preservation of mankind. This is all found both within
the giving of the law and in the narrative structure that
provides the lawgiving’s historical and philosophical
framework.
Please don’t throw this away. If you’re not going to use it, leave it for
someone else to use.