Please Logos Publish This Book

DAL
DAL Member Posts: 10,837 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

John G Butler's ABE on Leviticus - Deuteronomy:


Leviticus 1

The title "Leviticus" originated with the Septuagint translation and refers to the fact that much of the book contains instructions for the Levites, the priestly tribe of Israel. The first seven chapters have to do with instructions about five main offerings of which the burnt offering is recorded in this first chapter. Leviticus I may be divided into four major parts as follows:

  1. The Foreordaining of Offerings (Leviticus 1:1-3)
  2. The Feeder Offering (Leviticus 1:2-9)
  3. The Flock Offering (Leviticus 1:10-13)
  4. The Fowl Offering (Leviticus 1:14-17)

A. The Foreordaining of Offerings

Leviticus 1:1-3

The instructions for the offerings and all of Leviticus came from God and were given to Moses just after the Tabernacle had been set up while the Israelites were still at Mount Sinai.

1. The Calling of the Lord (Leviticus 1:1)

The calling of God reveals what man is to do. Worship and service for God are to be done as God instructs.

• The means of the calling. "Called unto Moses" (Leviticus 1:1). Moses did not receive instructions from God through dreams or visions. God spoke "mouth to mouth" to Moses (Numbers 12:8). This was a special privilege for Moses to receive Divine revelation in verbal communication and not in dreams and visions. Today we learn of Divine revelation through the written Word.

• The man for the calling. "Moses" (Leviticus 1:1). He was the leader of the Israelites. He had just led them out of Egypt, and they had been at Sinai for some months. He would lead them for the next nearly forty years.

2. The Communing of the Lord (Leviticus 1:1)

The communing of God to man took on a new feature here.

• The place of the communing. "Spake unto him out of the tabernacle" (Leviticus 1:1). Heretofore, God had spoken from Mount Sinai. Now that the Tabernacle is finished and set up,

God will speak from the Mercy Seat of the Ark as this was His dwelling place (Exodus 25:22).

• The pity in the communing. "Out of the tabernacle" (Leviticus 1:1). Grace is the message in this speaking from the Mercy Seat. The law came from Mount Sinai but grace comes from the Tabernacle. The message of the first few chapters of Leviticus is about the offerings which in general speak of grace for the sinner.

3. The Commanding by the Lord (Leviticus 1:2)

The communing for Moses was a command for service.

• The mandate in the commanding. "Speak unto the children of Israel"

Comments

Categories